Super Smash Brothers: The Next Generation
by Wolf-Shadow's-Ghost
Summary: The Smash Brothers are the largest gathering of good in the known galaxies, but whenever they meet at the esteemed Smash Mansion for their yearly gathering, something always comes up unexpectedly, to the point where they all expect it. LongerSummeryInside
1. Prologue

Summery:

The Smash Brothers are the largest gathering of good in the known galaxies, but whenever they meet at the esteemed Smash Mansion for their yearly gathering, something always comes up unexpectedly, to the point where they all expect it. This time, things started off with uncanny smoothness, until a strange energy force brings a group of young warriors who look so familiar and yet so strange. 

Orignialy Published on the Nintendo Insider forums under the screen name of WolfTrust.

Date: November 05

Secondarily published on Under screen name Wolf—Shadow.

Date: Sep 23, 2007

Now posted here on for the propose of relocation the original readers of this fic, and the hope of finding new readers.

Status: In progress

AN: Okay, this was (and is) my first large, multi chaptered fic, and this was the one that gained me the most popularity I've ever enjoyed as a fan fiction writer. I haven't worked on this fic for sometime, (I lost interest after the Insider forums shut down) but I now hope I can continue work on it along side my other fandoms.

Disclaimer: All characters, Samus Aran, Link, Mario Mario, Pikachu, Mewtwo, Zelda, Peach, Luigi Mario, Impa, Daisy, Fox McCloud, Krystal, Captain Falcon, Jody Summer, Ness, Kirby, Donkey Kong, Sheik, are © or R to Nintendo corp.

The OC's (Original characters) of Toadrice, Chef Gamdin, Apollo, the black haired, green eyed boy, and the made up tribe of Sheikans are all owned by Wolf—Shadow/WolfTrust/Wolf—Shadow's—Ghost, or whatever username she is using at the moment, and are not to be used without her permission. (Seriously people, I've invested a lot of time and effort into this story, and I really don't want my ideas to be ripped off)

One last thing, this story was started _long _before Super Smash Brothers Brawl was even announced, so the first chapters only use elements from Melee, later chapters may have more influence, and the sequels definitely will.

Other than that, I hope you enjoy the story! Pease review, I'm sure I missed some grammar mistakes and the like. :)

* * *

The Smash Brothers mansion, the largest mansion around, actually the only mansion around, as it is situated in a place between places, (that can be explained but it would take too long.), and is only used for meeting of the Smash Bros.

A normal day at the Smash Mansion is no where near what you'd consider normal anywhere else.

A normal day at this mansion would involve many small explosions, two or three large explosions, lightening dancing around in a cloudless sky, the smell of something burning, many voices raised in annoyance, animal cries, space ships flying around, and many other weird things that merit mentioning, but if they were all named, you would get bored long before we ever got to the one weird thing that this story is about, which is filled with all of the above, and much more.

As a side note, when the mansion is not in use, it is locked up and very quiet… A chilling thought.

They say that when it's empty, the ghosts come out. The Smash Mansion peacefully quiet… so unnatural. Fortunately, where the story begins is just before a meeting of the Smash Bros, and there is always so much work to do to get the Mansion ready…


	2. In which an Old Toad is grumpy

Chapter 1:

In which an old Toad is grumpy and Pokemon are annoyed.

"Get the garden weeded, hurry up and clean those stables, put your back into it!" Toadrice stomped his foot and glared at all the younger _lazier_ Toads working on the mansion and the grounds.

In a foul temper he stamped round a large flower pot and frowned up at the yellow spotted cap Toad, which was hanging by a rope cleaning one of the three hundred or so windows of the mansion.

"Put some elbow grease into it, we have royalty staying with us." The toad merely glanced down at him before resuming his work. Toadrice glowered, shook his head and continued his trek to the stables, snapping at anyone that didn't get out of the way fast enough.

The stables were situated fifty yards away from the mansion. Toads were not the only ones helping with the clean up (though most of them were), a few Pokemon were running around carrying tools and supplies, the most noticeable of them were working on the stables.

Three Smeargle were painting the trim around the windows and doors.

"No, no, no." Toadrice growled, slapping the tip of his cane against the tiled walkway. "I said blue, paint the trim blue.That is not blue!" The Smeargle didn't even look up Every time Toadrice had come to the stables he had screeched at them for painting the wrong color , each time seeming to forget the previous color.

The poor Pokemon had been terribly confused and must have repainted the trim about a dozen times before a small green cap noticed what was going on.

The green cap told them to paint it what ever color would like nice and to pay no attention to Toadrice, he was always like this when the Smash Bros. were returning. So the Smeargle had taken his advice and were now painting the trim crimson. This was their first time working at the mansion; they had been called in to repaint several different things around the place.

Toadrice snorted and walked back to the mansion barking at a pink cap girl Toad who was bringing in hay for the stables. When his back was fully turned, one of the Smeargle looked up from the window sill and shook his head at Toadrices retreating form, before returning to brushing perfect, even strokes with its tail.

Toadrice continued to grumble under his breath as he made his way around the left side of the mansion.

He passed by the kitchen window and paused to look to his right. A hedge maze stood about twenty yards away. The maze was mostly used for a quiet place to think, the reasons being that within it there was a small garden with a fountain, and several benches that were situated around the flower beds. The main reason was that a combination of magic and technology had been used so that as soon as you entered the maze all noise outside the hedge stopped, and you could only hear sounds that came from within the maze. So the soft whisper of the breeze, the songs of the small birds, native and imported, and the light rush of the fountain water, all reached your ears, rather than being drowned out by the chaos that the mansion was always in. Toadrice gave a shiver, the maze always creeped him out.

The breeze changed direction slightly, bringing him a whiff of baking. Turning to his right he looked through the kitchen window (it was more like he looked up through the window, as Toads are smaller than humans,), and saw a somewhat over weight Hyrulian man, his pointy ears powdered white. He saw Toadrice and waved at him cheerily with a flour covered hand.

Chief Gamdin, or Gam as everyone called him, had been working at the mansion just as long as Toadrice had. The Smash Bros. had been a team for eight years, Toadrice and Gam had lived and worked at the mansion for the same amount of time. Each of them had their own reasons for staying full time, but Toadrice found it easier to get along with Gam than any of the other ten or so full timers.

Irritably he raised the hand holding his crooked walking stick and jerked his wrist back and forth in a sort of disjointed wave, before setting out again on his inspection of the grounds. Despite the fact that he and Gam were on good terms (which was no small feat where Toadrice was concerned) they didn't always see eye to eye.

"What was there to be so cheery about all the time?" Toadrice thought grumpily.

Gam continued to watch Toadrice walk down the tiled path that led round the house. Why was he always so uptight? Perhaps it had something to do with being the grounds keeper as well as the house keeper for so many years. Yes, that had to be stressful, but still… "He just doesn't know how special this meeting will turn out to be. Does he?" Gam said to the little brown bat that hung sleepily from a rafter. Gam was still watching as Toadrice paused, and apparently finding something wrong with the tile, proceed to yell at a Ivysaur Pokemon that was near him.

Gam grinned, then pretending to frown seriously, puffed out his chest and said in a mock deep tone "Bah, humbug." Then he burst out in a roaring deep jolly laugh before returning to kneading the bread dough.

"Lazy, no good, multi colored…" Toadrice growled turning round the side of the mansion and into the huge back yard. It was comprised of a large green grass lawn that stretched out about twenty-five yards before hitting the yellow-white walkway that ran all the way round the grounds.

The tiled walkway split the back gardens in two on its way to the arch in the hedge wall. The archway led to a beaten down path through the grass field and onto the edge of the forest. If one walked down the path to the field, the flower beds would be on the right while the vegetable beds, filled with vegetables of every size shape and color, would be on the left.

Toadrice continued to growl, anyone else would have said the entire place was perfect, but not Toadrice.

"The flowers are all leaning over, water them! And if they're still drooping, stand them up with sticks!"

Several grass type Pokemon jumped at the sound of his voice calming down again when they saw who was talking, and returning to work with an annoyed air. The other Toads didn't even blink. Toadrice had just puffed himself up indignantly and was about to embark on one of his long speeches, when the speaker system came on, making everyone but Toadrice start.

"What, What? Is it on? It's on? Oh, Ahem. This is a mansion wide announcement. A space ship is on route to the landing pad.

We have yet to confirm which Smasher is on their way, but we do have confirmation that it is a friendly ship, and we will let you know when we have been sent ID codes. In the meantime, will head grounds keeper and head housekeeper, Toadrice, please come up to the landing deck to welcome the Smasher? That is all." Toadrice had already begun making his way to the landing pad as soon as he had heard the words, space ship.

He had made his way though the back door, past all the back rooms that were used for storage, past the door that led down into the creepy basement and was now in the lavishly furnished elevator, riding up to the roof top. He already knew who was on their way, she always came exactly an hour early. He pushed his walking stick further into the deep light blue carpet and shook his head. Every year without fail, one hour early. Toadrice thought maybe it was because she liked to get settled in without turmoil around every corner, which is what it was like when everyone returned.

His thoughts were interrupted when a ding sound reverberated through the red wallpapered elevator and the doors slid open with a slight whoosh. A cool breeze brushed his face as he steeped out of the elevator and on to the roof, five stories up. Symbols were painted on the floor, strategically placed so that the ships would not hit each other. Toadrice walked over to the nearest landing pad and scowled down at it.

"Didn't I tell those painter Pokemon to repaint this so you can see it from miles away in the sky?!" he snapped at a human boy with black hair

"Yes sir." The boy replied without stopping his sweeping of the roof.

"Well why didn't they?!"

The boy stopped and turned round to look at him. His eyes were deep emerald and seemed to know things that other people didn't, while still retaining youth.

"They did sir." He said simply before looking up at the sky. "You might want to move sir, she's coming down."

Toadrice looked up at the sky as the boy resumed his work.

Against the blue cloudless sky, an orange ship was slowly leveling off of its dive. He took one last look at the circular symbol with the zigzag lighting bolt going down the middle, before heading off to the door leading to the winding staircase. That boy always caught him off guard, he never reacted to things like Toadrice thought he would. Walking down the stairs and onto the landing deck, Toadrice heard the speaker system come on again, announcing who had arrived at the mansion. He didn't listen, he was to busy inspecting the landing deck. Tools and equipment lined the walls, all neatly polished and in order, and before Toadrice could find something to yell at the workers about, there was a low humming whirr.

He looked up from the vantage point on the bottom stair to see a large circular piece of the ceiling splitting into fourths to make way for the medium sized Hunter class ship that was drifting easily downward.

The ship passed though the hole of the Chozo symbol pad, landing lightly and sending a small shock wave though the floor of the workshop. The noise of the engine died and the room was absolutely silent. All of the Toads and the one Pokemon had stopped working to stare at the orange ship. Toadrice gave himself a little shake and walked over to the ship that sat to the left of the stairway, the tap of his walking stick echoing around the huge room.

As he reached the side of the ship a figure clad in orange amour slowly rose from the top of the space craft, blonde hair spilling down her back while she held a helmet under her right arm.

Toadrice cleared his throat and the woman turned her gray blue eyes on him. "Welcome back to the Smash Mansion , Miss Aran."


	3. Discussions with a Physic

Disclaimer: All characters, Samus Aran, Link, Mario Mario, Pikachu, Mewtwo, Zelda, Peach, Luigi Mario, Impa, Daisy, Fox McCloud, Krystal, Captain Falcon, Jody Summer, Ness, Kirby, Donkey Kong, Sheik, are © or R to Nintendo corp.

The OC's (Original characters) of Toadrice, Chef Gamdin, Apollo, the black haired, green eyed boy, and the made up tribe of Sheikans are all owned by Wolf—Shadow/WolfTrust/Wolf—Shadow's—Ghost, or whatever username she is using at the moment, and are not to be used without her permission. (Seriously people, I've invested a lot of time and effort into this story, and I really don't want my ideas to be ripped off)

**Chapter 2: Discussions with a Physic**

Samus leapt lightly off her ship and landed without a sound next to Toadrice.

"I trust you had a good trip?" Toadrice said.

She looked down at him and said polity "Yes, thank you."

He nodded and tilted his head to the side "Would you like an escort to your room?"

Samus felt a slight flare of annoyance but it quickly died down, he was only doing his job. "No, as long as my room is in the same place it's been in for the last few years."

Toadrice gave a dry chuckle "Yes indeed, I hope you find it suitably clean…." Toadrice clung on to the last words and let them hang in the air. Without even turning her head Samus could see that almost all of the workers had either rolled their eyes, shook their heads or muttered darkly under their breath.

She shifted her right arm to get a better hold on her helmet and said "I'm sure I will."

As she walked toward the elevator, her footsteps made no sound, adding to the quiet of the fifth floor as the workers were still staring at her, the fabled hunter.

As the elevator door closed before her she heard Toadrice snap "Well don't just stand there! More ships will be arriving. Get you act together!!" Samus grinned to herself as the elevator slowly came to a halt at the second floor.

Stepping out on to the red carpet Samus took a deep breath of air. There were very few times and even fewer places where she allowed herself to relax; she liked to keep on her toes. It was never certain when the next mission would come up or when the space pirates would show their ugly lobster faces.

Here at the mansion she could drop her guard somewhat, as everyone was on the same side.

Mentally Samus went thought the list of people that would be attending this meeting, she counted over forty people for the meeting itself, and at least thirty of them would be staying for another month. She wasn't quite sure why so many of them always decided to stay for such a long time. Maybe some of them had the same reason she did, it was a nice place to unwind, or maybe they stayed because it took a long time to get here, and it was nice to rest a bit before returning home.

As she had been musing she had wound her way thought the corridors, passed many doors, each with their own symbol, and now stood in front of one that had the same symbol as her landing pad. Beneath the circled lighting bolt, in polished gold lettering, the name Aran glittered in the light.

Samus gave a small smile and pushed the door open. Beyond it was a large, well furnished, well decorated room. A couch faced toward the south wall, giving the seated person a perfect view out of the large open window which looked out on to the back garden, the field and the forest beyond. Standing next to the couch Samus felt a breeze against her face. "Time to take the suit off."

She walked over to the door on her left and pushed it open. This room was much smaller then the last but seemed to be more suited to Samus' personality. While the last room looked like a sitting room with it's fancy paintings and oak coffee table, this one was very simply decked out, with one queen sized bed pushed against the center of the wall, a tall pine wardrobe to the left of the bed, a pine writing desk and a single medium sized window that had almost the same view as the larger window in the first room.

"Exactly the way I left it." Samus said looking around, "Simple but useful."

She strode over to the wardrobe, opened it and pushed aside the clothes that had been hanging there since the last time she visited the mansion, until she reached metal plating that seemed to be the back of the wardrobe.

She reached forward and typed in five numbers on a nearly invisible keypad, there was a pause then a small chime sounded, the metal panel spilt in two and slid apart revealing a compartment large enough for a person to stand in.

Samus closed her eyes as bright gold energy burst fourth from her suit. She inhaled sharply as her skin began to tingle and then shivered as the tingles deepened down into her bones. The whining hum lessened and the bright glow that she could see even thought her eye lids dimmed.

Opening her eyes she found herself staring at her green visor, the entire power suit

now stood in the compartment, each piece held together by the soft foam like substance that surrounded it. She looked down at herself, she still wore the blue skin tight suit with sleeves that only came down to just above her elbows and pants that went just below her knees, she found the cool air outside of her suit to be comforting. Her muscles rippled and tensed below her skin as she stretched her body to get used to being out of the suit.

"Now," she sighed, coming down out of the stretch, "let's see about getting some decent food."

The great hall, situated on the first floor had the mansions standard twelve foot high ceilings. The hall itself was thirty feet long and fifteen foot across with two long tables, and several smaller tables placed almost randomly. This made the Great Hall much more comfortable than Samus' usual dinning area.

"Miss Aran, Miss Aran, so good to see you. I hope you're hungry because we have an excellent meal cooking at this very moment."

Samus jumped and turned her eyes to the door on the south wall that led to the kitchen

"Chef Gamdin, I'm glad to see you." She smiled and walked toward him.

"Oh, how many times do I have to tell you to call me Gam, Miss Aran?"

Samus laughed and shook his hand, he always seemed to make her relax, "About the same number of times I've told you to call me Samus."

"Well met, why don't you sit down and I can whip up a delicious snack that will make you fell good and save you room for the dinner feast." He replied leading her over to one of the long tables.

"I couldn't take you away from preparing dinner." She responded sitting down on the bench.

"Nonsense, I have help in the kitchen and it won't take a moment. Wait right here and I'll be back in a jiffy." With that he bustled off to the adjoining door.

"What?"

"Just push the button and it will work."

"I don't see why Steven couldn't do this."

The loudspeaker boomed over the mansion much louder than was humanly necessary. Samus jumped and clapped her hands over her ears fighting down her annoyance at the moron with the microphone.

"Because Steven had a mental break down and… Hang on… You idiot! The speaker is on right now, and it's way too loud!!"

"Oh, it is? Whoops! Sorry everyone… now where is that volume control. Ah, here. Ahem, we apologize for the inconvenience."

Samus dropped her hands back down on the table to hear many angry shouts and threats from all over the mansion.

"Yes… well, this is a mansion wide announcement. The representatives from the Pokemon League Association, Pikachu, Pichu and Mewtwo have arrived. Will head house keeper and head groundskeeper Toadrice please come the Entrance Hall and welcome the Smashers. That is all."

Samus was about to shake her head in exasperation and mutter a curse under her breath when the second voice came over the loudspeaker…again.

"You bungler, you're supposed to say head groundskeeper first and head house keeper second. How could you mess up something as simple as-

"It's still on you know." The first voice said in amusement.

"Gah-

She couldn't help it; she laughed out loud and could hear most of the mansion joining in.

"Well that was awakening." Chef Gam said, setting a platter of food down next to her and chuckling.

"I thought you were going to make something small.", she replied frowning at him, She never liked being fussed over and it always made her uncomfortable when people went out of their way to do something for her.

As if he had read her mind Chef Gam said "This is small. You and the Pokemon and who ever else comes early can tide themselves over, until dinner." He checked the clock hanging over the doorway to the hall, "I'll see you later, there is still plenty of work to do." and he walked back to the kitchen.

"Pikachu, chu chu, Pikach-three, testing, one two three." The voice went from slightly high pitched down to what sounded like a teenage boys voice.

"Did it work Mewtwo? Are we talking like humans now?" said a young girl's voice tinged with excitement.

Picking out a piece of fruit from the platter, Samus watched the doorway as a large purple cat-like Pokemon came hovering in followed by two yellow electric mice.

**"Yes, unfortunately, the translators are working perfectly."** the physic Pokemon voice passed though her mind, rather than though her ears.

"Har har, Mewtwo." Pikachu said rolling his eyes.

"Ooo, Hi Miss Samus!" Pichu said bounding up to her on all fours "Yum, snacks. May I have some?" she said looking up at Samus with her unusually green colored eyes.

"Yes of course, the Chef left it out for all of us."

Instantly, two pairs of yellow paws reached in and picked out some meat, cheese and bread as both Pikachu and Pichu sat down on the tabletop next to the platter.

**"Could your manners be any worse?"** Mewtwo said, sitting down opposite Samus and glowering at his smaller companions.

Samus waved a dismissive hand. "Well, if they didn't sit like that they wouldn't be able to reach." she reached out for a piece of bread and earned a head rub on her hand from Pichu for defending them.

Samus thoughfuly watched the electric mice eat. She found it hard to tell precisely how she felt about Pokemon. Intelligent and very powerful with the elements that they wielded, they also looked and behaved somewhat like animals. Rather than treat them like humans or beasts, all of the Smashers, (including Samus) had found a balance between the two, so that relationships with Pikachu, Pichu and Mewtwo weren't tense.

Her train of thought was interrupted when two crackers, a slice of meat and a slice of cheese floated up from the platter, formed a sort of sandwich and hovered over the Mewtwo.

"Interesting." Samus said as the physic began to eat the still hovering snack

"And you say we have bad manners." Pichu said, watching Mewtwo.

"Hey." Pikachu said, his mouth full of food. "Have you guys noticed how the Chef has this way of making every one around him fell good?" he swallowed and continued "He even manages to get Mewtwo relaxed."

"I have noticed that. Remember how he got Impa to smile that one time, when she first got here and we all thought she was kind of cold?." Samus stated, tilting her head to the side.

**"Yes I do, but that was her first time here as a Smasher, and it was before she met that Apollo guy."** Mewtwo said still chewing on his food **"She's lightened up a lot since then."**

"Impa? Apollo?" Pichu said clearly trying hard to remember.

"You know, the tall, white haired lady. Princess Zelda's caretaker, Sage of Shadow from Hyrule?" Pikachu sighed exasperatedly, rolling his small black eyes at Pichu.

"Oh, yea." Pichu said, comprehension dawning on her small yellow face "And Apollo's her husband." Pichu's face fell back into a puzzled look and her large ears dropped, "Isn't he supposed to be Sheikah?"

Samus pondered that for a moment before answering, her mind quickly dreading up what small bits of information she knew about the ninja-like man. "Apparently, he's from a tribe of people that were an offshoot of the ancient Sheikah clan, ong that had changed their faith about life. That's why the markings under Apollo's eyes are so much different than Impa's."

Pichu tlitled her head and said slowly. "So Apollo and Impa met, fell in love and got married?"

Mewtwo snorted. **"Not from what I've overheard, it seems that they didn't like each other very much, but that they were fighting something called 'Recognition', which had something to do with them being soul mates and not wanting to acknowledge it."** He shrugged,** "Not that I know much about love."**

"But they're in love now right?" Pichu was clearly very confused.

"Defiantly." Pikachu responded before the other two had a chance to say anything. "Have you seen the way that they look at each other? it's the same way with Mario and Peach, Luigi and Daisy, Link and Zelda, and those two flying mammals, Fox McCloud and Krystal." Pikachu paused to take a bite of turkey before continuing "If they would all take a hint from the shadow people and admit their feelings then everyone would be much happier and quieter."

**"It wouldn't be quieter if they all had kids."** Mewtwo commented dryly, Pikachu laughed and Pichu giggled.

"This sounds like a bad soap opera." Samus said taking a bite of apple and glancing at the clock "Speaking of the others, they should be getting here soon."

**"Hmm, I stopped expecting any of them on time years ago."** Mewtwo shook his head **"They are either a few minuets early, or hours late."**

"Not everyone watches time that closely," replied Samus taking the cracker and cheese sandwich that Pichu offered. "and from what I know, the time-frames from each realm differ greatly. It's much harder to calculate time in a different reality."

"This is a mansion wide announcement," the loud speaker suddenly blared, now mercifully quieter.

Pikachu and Pichu jumped slightly at the interruption, even while Samus and Mewtwo glanced calmly toward the corner of the ceiling where the loudspeaker hung.

The bounty hunter then looked back at the clock and commented, "Well, whoever is here they are _almost_ on time."

Out of the corner of her eye Samus saw Mewtwo turn and glare at her, she smirked. He shook his head and turned back to the speaker.

"We have confirmation that a group of Smashers are on the road to the mansion, and we will inform you as to who they are as soon as we are aware."

"Hey." Pikachu said, his ears perking up "That's the first guy that got yelled at when we got here."

**"That was amusing."** Mewtwo grinned in a malicious way, but the others ignored him.

"He sounds happier." Samus commented, tapping her fingers on the table.

"He should, I think Toadrice told off the other guy." Pichu said and then frowned. "I hope they hurry up, I want to know who's here."

Samus held an expression of thought for a quick moment, then she stood up from the bench. "Let's go see." she said, walking toward the doorway and out into the hall.

Passing by the archway to the huge library, Samus stepped into the Entrance Hall. With its large double doorway made of mahogany, and white, Roman style pillars made of marble, this was the that room really showed off that the entire mansion was a combination of old and new.

"Come on!" Pichu squealed, running up the righthand stairway and up to the second floor. Pikachu took staircase on the left and almost collided with Pichu at the top where the stairs met and formed the arch that stood above the first floor hall.

Grinning to herself at the Pokemon's near accident, Samus followed Pichu up the right staircase. Mewtwo simply levitated to the landing that was connected to the front wall near the doorway.

Once she reached the landing, Samus slid past Mewtwo and stood by the window, gazing out into the front yard. Nearly as impressive as the back, the tall spiked iron gate and hedge fence gave the people within the mansion a sense of security, and their enemies a sense of foreboding, especially since there was quite a lot of security hiding in the hedge to keep the unwelcome out.

"I can't see anything!" Pichu squeaked as she jumped up and down, trying to see out the large window. She gave up after the third try, and instead , ran up Samus' leg and settled herself on Samus' shoulder. Pikachu had perched himself atop Mewtwo's head.

Although somewhatu ncomfortable at the uninvited invasion of space, Samus felt Pichu's warmth to be strangely nice; she didn't really get to be close to anyone because of her job.

Carefuly aware of Pichu's slight weight on her shoulder, the bounty hunter leaned forward to get a better look out the window, before saying in an amused tone, "Speak of the devil."

Mewtwo chuckled low in his throat. **"Oh, the irony."**

"I don't get it." Pikachu said as he slid farther forward on Mewtwo's head, his small yellow paw coming to rest just above the bridge of the purple brow. "Oh, okay."

From their position on the overhang of the Entrance Hall, they could clearly see Five horses cantering down the long paved road. Four of the large animals carried riders, each of them without bridles. The fifth was loaded down with bags and supplies. Running about three feet beside the horses were three brightly colored Yoshi's. The leading dinosaur was green and carried two people on it's back. The next in line was a light blue, it too carried both a man and a woman. The last one was bright yellow and seemed to be acting as the 'pack horse' of the Yoshi group, as it had suitcases tied to its saddle.

"I agree, Mewtwo, this is very ironic." Samus said "We were just talking about them, and now here they are." She shook her head "I should be used to these kinds of things by now."

Pichu wasn't listening, her overly large green eyes still intensely focused on the scene outside the window. "One red-brown horse with a white mane, one palomino, one grey, and one brown with black mane." Her eyes lit up and she giggled "It's…-

But before she could finish her sentence, the loud speaker came on once again.

"Attention all, we have just received confirmation on the approaching Smashers. Please welcome back the representatives from Hyrule, Link, the hero of Time, Princess Zelda, Seventh Sage, Impa of the Sheikah, Sage of Shadow, and Apollo of the Sheiklans. The representatives from the Mushroom Kingdom are, Princess Peach, and Mario Mario as well as Luigi Mario and Princess Daisy of Sarosaland. Will head house keeper and head groundskeeper Toadrice come to the stables, please. Thank you."

**"So ends the relative sanity and quiet of the Smash Mansion, and now the chaos begins."** Mewtwo sighed, swiping his tail down though the air.

Samus turned her head to look back at him, moving slowly so as not to disturb Pichu, then said with a rye grin. "Mewtwo, since when has this place not been chaotic?"

She looked back out the window, watching the riders come closer. "And you say it like it's a bad thing."

* * *

UPDATE: 8/24/08

A.N. 'Sigh' The original typing of Mewtwo's **"Mind-speak" **was indicated by a star at the beginning and end of each sentence.

After recently going through and checking all of my current stories here on , I realized that the star symbols had been removed, making everything Mewtwo said blend with the rest of the story, and making the whole thing look entirely unprofessional, and confusing.

Therefore, I have just gone through and edited the chapter so that everything Mewtwo says through his mind in separate and distinct. I have also made some minor edits to the dialogue and descriptions so that the story flows more smoothly.

(Man, my writing was terrible a couple of years ago. Not that's that much better nowadays.) :P

Please R&R.


	4. Of Races, Bets, Friends and Food

Disclaimer: All characters, Samus Aran, Link, Mario Mario, Pikachu, Mewtwo, Zelda, Peach, Luigi Mario, Impa, Daisy, Fox McCloud, Krystal, Captain Falcon, Jody Summer, Ness, Kirby, Donkey Kong, Sheik, are © or R to Nintendo corp.

The OC's (Original characters) of Toadrice, Chef Gamdin, Apollo, the black haired, green eyed boy, and the made up tribe of Sheikans are all owned by Wolf—Shadow/WolfTrust/Wolf—Shadow's—Ghost, or whatever username she is using at the moment, and are not to be used without her permission. (Seriously people, I've invested a lot of time and effort into this story, and I really don't want my ideas to be ripped off)

**Chapter 3: Of Races, Bets, Friends and Food**

Mario Mario had had to make several leg adjustments so that his friend and mount, a green yoshi aptly named Yoshi, could continue his jog trot to the mansion. The reason for the adjustments was because both he and Peach, who was riding with him, had started to get saddle sores in the last few hours of their journey.

Mario turned his head to glance at Link riding his horse Epona, then swiveled his head around to look outfrom under his red cap at the other three, Princess Zelda atop her palomino, Impa on her grey, and Apollo on his bay.

"We should have all gotten our own rides, instead of sharing." he thought slightly annoyed at himself. A thought suddenly struck him and he twisted his back around to look at his brother Luigi. He nearly laughed aloud at Luigis' expression of discomfort. One eye was bigger than the other and his mouth was twisted into a grimace. Mario could see Daisys' face over Luigis shoulder, she also wore an expression of discomfort, though it was not at all funny.

He turned his head still farther too look at Peach, her long, bright blonde ponytail streaming out behind her, pink dress almost glittering in the sunlight.

"She is so beautiful." He thought to himself, but then said aloud "Would you mind if we went a bit faster? The sooner we get there the sooner we can get off."

She looked relived "Yes please."

He returned his gaze back to the front and noticed something strange was going on with Yoshi. He was glaring at Epona who seemed to be glaring right back. The mare and dinosaur were running at the same pace but each seemed to be trying to pull away from each other. He noticed that Link seemed to be just as puzzled by Epona as he was at Yoshi.

"What's up?" he called to the Hylain. Link looked up at him, his green hat and tunic being pulled at by the wind.

Link shook his head, his fair skinned face mystified. "Not sure, she hardly ever acts like this."

Mario could see that Zelda looked concerned, Impa looked puzzled and Apollo looked… about ready to laugh? Yep, that was Apollo alright.

"Hmm, hey Yoshi, would you mind going a bit faste… Ahhh!"

Yoshi took off so suddenly that Mario and Peach almost got thrown off. Quickly Mario grabbed onto his cap to keep it from getting blown off and seized on to one of Yoshis' spikes for support. Peach gasped and her grip around his waist tightened.

"What's gotten into Yoshi?" she called to him

"I'm not sure-a." Mario called back "Yoshi, what's going on my friend?"

Yoshi squealed angrily in a high pitched voice and Mario was startled to hear an answering angry whinny. Hoof beats pounded heavily and Epona galloped up beside them. Mario didn't dare look round to see if Luigi and Daisy had sped up to keep pace with them or if Links party had pushed their horses ahead as well. Mario was getting nervous, he could feel Yoshi straining beneath him, stretching his neck out trying to get more speed.

"Link!" he yelled to the elf

Link looked over at him, light blue eyes filled with excitement.

"I think we got caught in a race!" He heard Peach make a small nose in her throat.

Link gave them one of his lopsided grins "Then may the best rider win!" Mario watched in astonishment as Link urged Epona forward.

"You might as well try to beat him or Yoshi is going to be mad at you the whole time we're here." Peach called to him.

Mario turned his head around to her, thoroughly shocked "Are you sure?" She nodded.

"Okay…" he turned his head back to the front. "All right Yoshi, go for it!"

"Yoshi!" Pushing off with great agility Yoshi sped passed Epona and continued to run flat out down the road. Within a few seconds however, the mare and her rider had pulled along side them once more. Now Mario heard more than Eponas hooves thudding against the ground and more than Yoshis' feet, now he heard the thundering of five horses and the pitpat of three yoshis. The entire group seemed to have joined the race and all together sounded like some kind of storm. The effect of this, plus the wind that rushed passed him almost deafened Mario. The thrill of the race kept fear from entering his mind.

"Almost there.", he though to himself. He felt Yoshi straining his muscles and in turn pulling and stretching Mario and Peachs' legs as they moved with him to maximize speed.

"You can do it Yoshi!" Peach called to their friend. Mario wanted to give Yoshi some kind of encouraging word but he was too busy keeping hold of Yoshis' front spike to say anything more, not to mention Marios' saddle sores had started to sting and ache. The open main gate was rapidly approaching and no one had gained, nor given any ground.

Yoshi panted trying desperately to pull ahead of Epona, they were only a few feet away from the gate and then… they were past it and speeding down the path way, past flower beds and toward the stables. Yoshi skidded to a halt in front of the open stable door. Mario slumped his shoulders and sighed then quickly slid off Yoshi and offered his arm to Peach. She slid off and they stood next to Yoshi who had his hands on his knees and was panting.

"Ohhh…. Did you have to get into a race?"

Mario, Peach and Yoshi all turned their heads around, Luigi was standing next to the light blue female yoshi named Bella. Mario noticed that Luigi was standing a bit bowlegged "Couldn't you have just ridden in at a nice slow pace instead of taking off and stirring up all of our rides?"

"What? Can't take a little race?" Apollo grinned, trotting his sweat coated mare past Luigi and stopping next to Link, who still sat on a sweat shining Epona.

Daisy slid off Bellas' right side and looked up at Apollo, her brown hair slightly disheveled, and her eyes full of travelers weariness .

"Number one, Mr. Apollo, riding a Yoshi is nothing at all like riding a horse, your thigh muscles are rubbed along the Yoshis back a lot more than a horse, and thirdly-

"I don't think Apollo meant any insult from his comment your Highness." Impa had dismounted her grey gelding and was leading him toward the stable door. She looked over to her husband who was wearing body armor that was similar to hers. "You were not intending to be rude, were you?"

Apollo shook his head, dark grey hair flicking around his strong chiseled face, light crimson eyes sparkling "No of course not, I was just having a little fun, your highness."

Daisy sighed "Thirdly, please just call me Daisy, it gets confusing when you have three princesses on one team."

"I agree." Princess Zelda walked up to Impa leading her palomino mare behind her.

"I would like it if everyone would call me Zelda, not Your Highness, Princess or Your Grace." Her silvery voice was amused but serious.

Impa frowned "But, Princ-

"That goes for you too Impa, you're more like family to me than anything and if I have to order you to call me by name, I will."

For a moment the two women looked at each other, Mario noticed that Zelda had a look of amused defiance, while Impa looked stern but thoughtful. Suddenly Impa smiled and said with a mixture of pride, irritation, understanding and pleasure. "All right, I suppose I don't have a choice."

"Yes, you two are right." Mario turned around, Peach was looking between Daisy and Zelda her ponytail being pulled at by the breeze. "We are all a team, so we should not be separated by rank that has nothing to do with what we are trying to accomplish." The other two smiled and nodded.

"Ahem, uh, not to be too rude, but, who won the race?" Link said, still sitting atop Epona.

"Yes, who did win?" Mario said looking around at the others.

"I think Link and Epona pulled away at the last moment." Apollo responded, swinging down off his horse and landing without a sound.

"It looked like Yoshi got ahead by a nose, at least, I think so." Luigi said as he and Daisy walked up to stand beside Mario.

"Does it really matter who won?" Impa asked tilting her head to the side.

"Of course it matters." Apollo responded patting his mare on the neck 'Whoever won has bragging rights for the entire stay, and it shows which steed is better."

'Is he out of his mind?' Mario thought with a mixture of horror and amusement.

Impas already straight back stiffened, and her ruby red eyes narrowed, giving the white markings beneath them an even more dangerous look. There was a flurry of movement out of the corner of his eye. Mario saw Link quickly slide off Epona so that the mare was between him and the others.

"Oh sure, he gets a shield." he thought with a bit of nervousness, and fidgeted.

Impa, still glaring at her husband, had just opened her mouth to say something when…

"Now wait a minute." Everyone turned. Yoshi, who had been watching over his shoulder, straitened up and swiveled around to face them. At his full height Yoshi's head came up to Epona's shoulder which meant that Yoshi was as tall as Link, but shorter than Apollo who stood a few inches above Impa.

"I was the one who started the race and Epona was just eager for a good run against someone." His voice was hard to describe, not to high, but not very deep. "Impa's right, it doesn't matter who crossed the fence first, I just enjoyed having someone to pit myself against, though I don't think Mario and Peach did." He looked over at them and grinned sheepishly.

"Ahem," Mario jumped and looked behind him, "Oh, hi Toadrice, you snuck up on me. " he said cheerfully, giving the old toad one of his usual bright smiles "How long have you been standing there?"

"Not very long sir. I would like to welcome you all back to the Smash Mansion . Masters Mario." He bowed his head to Mario and Luigi in turn, they both bowed back, "Princess Peach, Princess Daisy," Toadrice bowed low, Peach and Daisy bowed back, each pulling their dresses out of the way. "Good sir Yoshi," Toadrice bowed his head at the dinosaur "Princess Zelda, Seventh sage." Once again Toadrice bowed low and Zelda returned the gesture "Madam Impa, Sage of Shadow." He nodded his head and Impa did the same, short white hair bright against the earthy colors around the stables "Master Link, Hero of Time." Link had come around from Epona's side and now stood at her neck, he inclined his head to Toadrice "Master Apollo, ummm… of the Sheiklans."

"Not much to your name, is there?" Link said in a teasing tone, grinning at Apollo who folded his arms across his chest and glared at him. But before an argument could start, Epona snatched Links hat off his head, exposing his bright golden hair, and as he yelped and tried to get it back, Apollo laughed, Zelda bit her lower lip to keep from giggling and Impa gave a small grin.

"All right I'll take your saddle off, but give me my hat back!" Link said in exasperation.

"Sir." A blue cap toad came forward out of the stables large sliding door and walked down the tile path until he stood in front of the elf. "Would you like us to take care of your horses so that you can rest?" he said looking around at all of them.

"No, thank you I'd rather get her unsaddled myself." Link responded leading Epona though the door. The others agreed.

As Zelda and Impa led their horses past him Mario suddenly remembered the yellow Yoshi who had carried their luggage. He turned to Toadrice slightly worried, but he didn't even have to ask. Toadrice was talking in an undertone to a green cap who had been working on a flower bed near by. "Hurry up and get that pack horse unloaded, the others were way to slow about unloading that Yoshi."

"So out luggage is in out rooms?" Daisy said suddenly causing Toadrice to jump.

"Yes, M'lady, every thing is in order."

Daisy nodded "I'm going to change into something more comfortable." She gave Luigi a kiss on the cheek and started to walk down the tiled path to the front door,

"I'll come with you, I need a change as well." Peach also gave Mario a peak on the cheek, "Thank you for the ride here Yoshi." With that she hurried off to join Daisy.

"Well," he said turning back to Yoshi and trying to hide his blush "Do you need help cleaning yourself up?"

Yoshi cocked his head "No, I'll just take a shower ," he grinned "I have opposable thumbs, remember? I don't need to be taken care of like a horse does."

"Watch out!" called a voice from within the stables. Epona, free of the saddle and minus Links hat, cantered out through the door and made a wide circle around Mario, Luigi and the two Yoshis, before setting off across the walk way toward the back and eventually into the field. Another warning was spoken and Impas gray, followed by Zeldas palomino, and Apollos bay, cantered out the same way as Epona.

"They couldn't get out of those saddles fast enough." Zelda remarked as she and Link came back into the sunlight, Impa and Apollo close behind.

"Wouldn't you be eager too?" Mario asked as they all began walking to the front door. Apollo stopped next to Toadrice and contemplated the outside of the stables. "You repainted the trim." he stated

"Yes Sir, the old paint was chipped and worn." Toadrice responded

"I like it, it is a good color choice." Apollo nodded in approval.

"Smeargle! Smea, rgle Smeargle!"

Mario started and looked up at the stable roof. Three Pokemon were jumping up and down waving their paintbrush like tails in the air and shouting with big triumphed smiles.

"I wonder what got into them." Zelda said, her golden hair shining in the sun and

contrasting beautifully with her pale skin.

"Who knows?" Toadrice said in an annoyed tone and walked off. A few moments later, Mario followed the others close behind.

When they reached the great hall, Toadrice bid them Farewell and ambled off.

"Yay! You guys finally got here!" Pichu stood on the table waving her small paws in the air and smiling.

Mario smiled back, happy to see the young Pokemon.

"Took a bit longer than we thought it would." Luigi said as he walked toward the table.

Samus Aran sat on the opposite side of the table, she gave a small grin and nodded at them. Pikachu was sitting on the table next to Pichu and a delicious looking platter of food. Peach and Daisy sat on either side of Mewtwo who gave a vague wave of his tail in greeting. Peach and Daisy had both changed out of their usual long dresses and into tee shirts and pants. Peach was wearing a light pink shirt and Daisy was wearing a dark green one.

"Did you have a good trip?" Samus asked as Mario sat down beside Peach.

"Ran into some bad weather when we first set out." Impa answered settling herself on Samus' right, Apollo sat next to her.

"But other than that it was fine." Link said as he and Zelda placed themselves next to Apollo. They continued to share small talk for while, asking how the Federation was doing, who had won the most recent Pokemon League, how the mansion plumbing was doing lately and other general small talk. After a minute or so, Yoshi came in and sat next to Mario, looking slightly dejected.

"Bella took off?" He asked him in an undertone so the others wouldn't hear.

Yoshi nodded glumly then brightened "Oh well, her loss."

"Yes it is." Mario agreed firmly.

For the next hour the Speaker system turned on and off every few minutes, barely giving them time to speak to each other, let alone the new arrivals.

"Please welcome back Donkey Kong of the jungles,

"It's been awhile since…

"Welcome back Bounty Hunter, Captain Falcon and Jody Summer of…

"Not many good bounty's lately."

"But there have been some good races…

… Ness … Nana and Popo… Welcome back Kirby… house keeper Toadrice please come… Marth and Roy from…

"Nice to see you all again…

"And now that Mr.Game and Watch is here we only have a few Smashers yet to come, thank you, that is all."

"Yep, Fox, Krystal and Falco." Pichu said now sitting on a specially made chair that allowed her and Pikachu to see over the table while sitting on the bench.

Who wants to bet that they don't show up for at least two hours. Mewtwos voice traveled though all of their heads, stopping every conversation and causing everyone to look round at him.

"What kind of bet?" Captain Falcon asked leaning forward. Mario noted that Jody who was sitting next to him, rolled her eyes and folded her arms. Jody didn't like Falcon much, he observed.

If I win, everyone who took place in the bet has to call me Sir, Master or Lord, every time they speak to me. there was muttering around the table.

"What if we win?" Apollo asked raising an eyebrow. The markings beneath Apollos eyes had similarities to Impas. But instead of having three prongs that pointed downward, only the middle prong pointed down while the others curled up and inward, they looked kind of like an arrow head.

If you win, you get to address me however you want, put whatever kind of face junk on me that you feel like, and take pictures of me. Mewtwo said in a monotone voice.

"So we can dress you up in ladies outfits, put make-up on you and take pictures that we can look back on and laugh till we hurt?" Popo called from down the table looking almost unrecognizable without his thick coat.

Yes.

"I'm in." Falcon said immediately

"It sounds intriguing." Apollo stated making Impa close her eyes and shake her head.

"Us too!" the Ice Climbers cried.

"I'll do it." Link said, Zelda and Impa shared an exasperated look.

This kind of bet was common for the start of the stay at the mansion. Mewtwo made almost ridiculous bets, such as betting that the Star Fox Team would be hours late, while they were usually fourth to return, it was very strange therefore, for them to be even this late. However Mewtwo seemed to have madly gook luck and it would be fun to have a little revenge after all the things Mewtwo had made them do.

"Count me in as well." Mario said, and out of the corner of his eye he saw Peach lean her head on her hand.

"Sure." Grunted Donkey Kong

Anyone else? Mewtwo asked looking around the table. Samus?

"Thanks, but I'd rather face the SA-X again than take place in another one of your bets." She said with a small smirk.

No one else? there where a few mutters around the Hall but no one answered.

All Right, betting is closed, and don't forget you can call me Sir, Master or Lord, which ever you prefer.

The next hour passed very slowly and although Kirby accidentally sucked up and spat out a very annoyed Ness , there was no sign of the Star Fox Team. The next hour passed, if possible, even slower. This might have had something to do with the fact that smells from the kitchen started wafting into the hall, and while the snacks tasted good, they were not filling.

Mario was checking the clock every five minuets, the Ice Climbers looked like they were taking turns, every ten minutes or so, one of them would turn, glance at the clock, look at Mewtwo then resume the conversation. Falcon had his own time keeper on his arm band, and kept one eye on it the whole time he was talking to Kirby and Marth, at least, Mario thought so, it was hard to see Falcons expression under his helmet. Donkey Kong didn't look like he had any kind of pattern; he just looked at the clock as though he had forgotten that he had just checked it a moment ago. Link was very cool about it and only glanced at the time twice during the first hour and three times in the now rapidly retreating second hour. Apollo was the calmest of them all; he never once looked up from his conversation.

"This is a mansion wide announcement." The speaker system came on with out any warning making everyone start.

"The representatives from the Lylat System, Fox and Krystal, have arrived. Will head house keeper and head grounds keeper Toadrice please come to the landing pad to welcome the Smashers? That is all."

"Ha!" Nana cried triumphantly pointing at Mewtwo. "We won the bet! Now we get to dress you up funny!"

Mewtwo looked bemused, never a good sign. Not yet, they have to be in the hall itself for you to win.

"What?!" Mario cried shocked.

"You never said anything about them being in the Hall to win!" Falcon said angrily, the others nodded in agreement.

You never asked, you just jumped right in, feet first. Mewtwo smirked in an irritating way it's important to know all the rules before you play the game, besides, he glanced at the clock you still have, mmmm, about five minutes before the two hours are up, and since you think I treated you so unfairly, then it will not affect the bet in anyway because Falco doesn't seem to be here.

The hall was silent, even the people that hadn't taken place in the bet were quiet, some because they had taken place in other bets and wanted to see who won, others because they knew that even the slightest noise could cause the players to snap. The only sounds came from the kitchen where the food smells still wafted in from There was one or two faint whinnies from the horses that were grazing in the field, and then, finally…

The ding of the elevator, the almost silent hiss of the elevator door and Krystals voices sounding annoyed came down to them.

"Oh, hurry up." Link hissed

"I told you before we left, I told you three times to look at your left thruster, but did you listen to me?" Krystals voice grew loader as she approached, clearly very annoyed.

"All right, all right, I messed up. I'm sorry." Fox said a note of pleading in his voice, their footsteps stopped.

"Fox, I may be the newest member of the team, but I know the ships well enough to see when something's wrong, and if you'd just-"

"Fox, Krystal!" Donkey Kong yelled, a bit panicked.

Fox and Krystal walked up to the door way and stopped, looking puzzled, Krystal's blue fur was all on end showing her emotional state. Fox's light brown was ruffled where he must have run his fingers through it.

"What?" they asked in unison.

"Get in here." Falcon said his muscles tense.

"Why?" Krystal responded, thoroughly confused.

"Just do it!" Mario, Link, Popo, Nana, Donkey Kong and Falcon yelled. Apollo hadn't said a single thing since the Star Fox Team had landed.

They walked into the room and toward a free space at the table, still looking confused.

"I believe we won." Falcon grinned

Mewtwo said nothing, munching on another floating snack, pointed his tail at the clock behind him, it was two minuets passed the hour.

"You must have cheated and pushed the clock hands forward with your powers." Donkey Kong said astonished.

Or, Mewtwo said you where all so concentrated on getting Fox and Krystal in here that you forgot to watch the time.

"How can we be sure that you didn't use you powers to win?" Apollo said raising an eyebrow.

"He's got a point." Yoshi cut in.

Mewtwo held up his right hand and said very seriously, I swear on my honor as a psychic Pokemon that I did not use my power to win the bet, besides he dropped his hand It's not a very high price to pay, I could have asked something much more embarrassing of you, but I though that you could use a break.

Nana and Popo muttered something to each other, Falcon looked very annoyed and Link sighed but other than that the result seemed acceptable.

"I think we missed something big." Fox stated, staring around, but they were spared giving a long explanation by Chef Gam walking out of the kitchen with a large grin on his face and a very tasty looking plate of food. Others followed behind him each carrying food that looked fit for a God. Vegetable salad, fruit salad, and an alien salad that tasted like a cloud had fallen from the heavens, and every kind of sweat, tart and tangy flavor you could imagine, just as long as you didn't know exactly what it was made of. Then there was meat, beef, pork, and other varying animals, from every universe thinkable, all sweetened or spiced differently, thick and juicy, from rare to well done. There was also many kinds of bread, pastries, rolls, biscuits and slices of home cooked white bread, whole wheat and rye, all warm and sweet. Every dish contained something different, and why wouldn't they? Hundreds of thousands of recipes from every Samshers home port, must have made it hard for the cooks to chose only some of them.

Once all the food had been brought out, most of the cooks ran back to the kitchen and came out a few seconds later, carrying pitchers and clear crystal glasses. Chef Gam stood at the head of the table watching as the glasses were set in front of the Smashers and filled with varying transparent colors, blue, tan, red, olive, wines from every galaxy and cellar. Each Smasher had their own preference and each was served accordingly.

"You outdid yourself again, Chef Gam." Daisy commented as the silverware and plates were set before them. "I feel a bit bad eating the food that you all worked so hard to make, and you only get to try the leftovers."

Chef Gam's smile broadened, "Oh my lady, as cooks we get pleasure out of all of you enjoying the food we prepared for you, and anyway," he waved a hand exuberantly. "We have access to many amazing and challenging food recipes, and as cooks, there is nothing we enjoy more. Not having to worry about supplies and money while we mix and invent superbly excellent dishes is another reason we do what we do. Right, everyone?" the question was directed at his workers who had finished their work and were standing behind him. Most of them were toads, but there were two Mr. Mime Pokemon and the black haired green eyed boy as well.

"Right!" they all answered with zeal, except for the boy. Chef Gam bowed "Now, we leave you to eat, do not forget to save some room for the dessert." They returned to the kitchen and everyone's eyes turned to Mario. Somehow it had turned into tradition that he give an opening speech before they ate. It was a little unnerving to have so many different colored eyes all focused on you, from shades of blue, to red, purple, brown, green and even unknown, like Captain Falcon. He stood up, cleared his throat and raised his blue wine filled glass.

"Here we are all again, united against common enemies, but also through common similarities, as well as differences. We are different species, we come from different lands, we believe in different Deities, we have different ears, eye color, some of us have fur all over our bodies, and some are born with the capability to wield elements of the earth we live on," He paused, no one said anything, no one moved "but we all breath air, we all look to the stars and wonder what other incredible things are out there, we all had mothers and fathers, even if they weren't the ones we were born to, we all live, we all die, but most importantly," he paused again and looked round at all the faces of his teammates "We all had a choice, a choice between what is right and what is easy, a choice to hurt or to help, a choice to destroy or to heal. A choice… between good and evil. We have all chosen to be right, to help, to heal… we have chosen good. That is what makes us so alike. No matter how we do it, we all enforce good. Good for ourselves, for the people around us, weather we like them or not, good for future generations, for our children, for peace." He raised he glass in the air, the others all did the same, said as one. "For peace.", and drank deep. Everyone, Luigi, Peach, Daisy, Mewtwo, Pikachu, Pichu, Fox, Krystal, Jody, Falcon, Link, Zelda, Donkey Kong, Mr. Game and Watch, Marth, Roy, Ness , Samus, Apollo, Impa, Kirby, Yoshi, all together, united for a greater good.

After everyone lowered their glasses, Mario said in high spirits "Now that I've talked your ears off, let's all dig into Chef Gam's savory meal."

The food was amazing, from the wildly exotic fruit that Samus had procured off other worlds, to familiar things like pasta and pizza. Every bite seemed to have its own sensation, even the butter tasted unique and foreign, everything tasted even better than it looked.

The talk was cheery and everyone was in a good way. An hour and half later, the sun had set and dinner was winding down. When everyone appeared to be finished the cooks bustled out from the kitchen and begin to remove the food that had not been eaten. It would be stored and saved for later meals. Plates, spoons, knives and forks, were taken away and replaced with clean ones. Refreshments were offered as they had been throughout dinner, only Donkey Kong and Falcon had drank more than one glass of wine.

Once all of the cutlery was replace and all the glasses refilled the workers vanished back into the kitchen. One moment later Chef Gam and the black haired boy walked out, carrying what looked like a two foot tall statue. A brown dragon sat on its hunches, its wings folded to its back, small spikes running the length of its back and tail, mouth open, exposing rows of sharp fangs. It looked almost real, but as it drew nearer Mario could see that is was made entirely of chocolate. Every tiny detail beautifully etched. Each individual scale shone, the claws on its feet glittered with a sugar coating, its eyes must have been painted with black and gold frosting, and it even looked like it had muscles. Right behind the first dragon came a second, carried by the Mr. Mime, it was identical to the other except that this dragon was a pure white.

Chef Gam stood back after placing the brown dragon near the middle of the table, the white one was placed beside it, only a foot away. "The brown dragon is chocolate coated, chocolate cake, the tail is chocolate covered custard." Practically everyone's mouths were open, Mario knew his was. "The white dragon is white chocolate covered white cake, the tail also is made of custard, and for those who don't like either…" he stepped aside as four toads came though holding up a large bowl full of ice cream of every flavor thinkable. "I also have dragon eggs." There was silence as everyone looked back and fourth at the Chef then at the dragons.

How in the name of the Elite Four, did you manage to make those? Mewtwo asked, shocked, an extremely rare emotion for him.

"Head Chefs little secret." Gam answered with a wink.

"It looks too real to eat." Krystal breathed.

"If they taste half as good as they look, then we're in for heaven." Jody said eyes wide.

"Pichu, since you're the youngest, would you like the first piece?" The Chef asked with a beaming smile.

"Um, okay." Pichu said with some hesitation. Carefully Chef Gam cut a small slice from each dragons shoulder and a small scoop of Pichu's favorite ice cream, strawberry, and set the plate in front of the young Pokemon. Everyone watched as she took a piece from the chocolate slice, regarded it, then popped it in to her mouth. For a spilt second she did nothing then her green eyes misted over and her small frame relaxed.

"Wow." She said in awe before starting in on the rest of it.

The Chef, still beaming, as well as the black haired boy and the Mr. Mime walked back to the kitchen. Wow, was really the only way to describe the dessert, nothing else even came close. The chocolate had a satisfying crunch but if left it to melt it would spread and soak into the already moist, rich cake. The white chocolate was much the same way, its super sweetness crawling into every crevice, and combining perfectly with the white cakes gentle flavor. Along with whatever kind of ice cream and after the extremely large dinner they had eaten before, no one could eat more than one serving.

Once more the plates were cleared and the remains of the dragon were removed, and for about another half an hour they all sat around and talked. Then Samus suddenly stood up and said "I'm going to bed now. I had a rather long trip and after that meal I might actually sleep in." she started off "Good night everyone, and thank you Chef Gam, and you helpers, for the best meal I've had since the last time I was here."

The Chef came out and leaned on the kitchen doorway, "Your quite welcome, Miss

Aran." He grinned

"I think I'm going to bed too." Kirby said through a yawn thankfully not hard enough to suck anyone up.

"Thanks Gam." Ness said in a tired but happy voice.

Beside him Yoshi got up and joined the others walking toward their rooms. Mario was also sleepy. He stood and offered Peach his arm. She smiled at him and took it.

They walked down the halls of the second floor until they reached a door whose gold lettering spelled out Princess Peach. Mario opened the door for her and she stepped into it.

"Thank you." she said softly and kissed him on the cheek "See you in the morning." She smiled and shut the door.

Mario gave a goofy smile and started walking to his room. He ended up right behind Impa and Apollo. They had their arms around each others waists and were talking to each other in their own fast, elegant language, but speaking softly.

He had reached his own door but continued to watch as they walked down several more doors and reached their own. Apollo quickly reached forward, opened the door and stepped aside. Impa raised a white eyebrow before laughing softly and entering the room. Mario caught Apollo's eye and grinned, Apollo grinned back before following his wife through the door. Mario opened his own door and went straight to the room that held his bed. His head had barely hit the pillow before he was asleep.

The next morning dawned bright and beautiful. Mario awoke feeling hungry, which was slightly odd considering how much he had eaten last night. He got up, put on his usual red shirt, blue overalls and red cap, and headed off to eat.

Down in the great hall most of the Smashers were already up and having breakfast whiched ranged from cold cereal to last night's leftovers, they weren't picky. The rest must have been still upstairs. Kirby and Ness were having a staring contest while their food became cold. Link was talking to Pikachu and Pichu. Donkey Kong and Falcon were discussing something or other and Yoshi and Fox were sitting together, chatting politely. He sat down next to them just in time to hear Fox say "No, Falco couldn't make it, said something about having business to take care of, and I know better than to ask anything else."

Yoshi cocked his head "That's a bummer, that guy is always such a laugh riot."

"Morning." Mario said pulling a clean plate towards himself.

"You two, so is anyone going to explain to me what was going on when Krystal and I got here?" Fox responded turning his head.

Mario had just opened his mouth to tell the whole long tale when the alarm blared. Immediately everyone that had been sitting jumped up and sprang into action, they all put a SALD (Speaking And Listening Device) into their ear so that they could communicate long distance. "Mario." He said his own name and heard the others do the same, it was their way of knowing who was on. "Samus?" he asked, he had not heard her come on.

"One second," her voice came over then there was static as her suit formed around her. "I'm here."

"What's going on?" Luigi asked though the SLAD, he must still have been upstairs.

"From what my sensors and the mansions security system can pick up, it looks like it was some kind of massive energy surge, about a mile… North West of here. But there's still remnant energy so I don't know anything beyond that. The sensors can't penetrate it." Samus responded. She could tap into the mansions security system and had all it's readouts right in front of her eyes.

"So what do we do?" Roy asked.

"We can't risk it, it might be a full frontal attack from our enemies." Apollo stated firmly. "I believe we should investigate." Agreement came though from all sides.

"All right, lets move out!" Mario called out and took off running. The others in the Great Hall followed right behind him. When he reached the entrance hall, Samus in full armor, jumped down from the top stairway and began running flat out.

In a split second the Entrance hall was filled with the sound of many pairs of feet, and Smashers came out from upstairs, and then he was out in the crisp morning air, all around him were his teammates running, hovering, flying all heading toward the same unknown challenge.

Quietly everyone. Mewtwo reminded them all as they drew near the source of the energy. Carefully everyone readied their weapons and showed their pace to keep as silent as possible. Link drew his sword, sparks jumped from Pikachu's cheeks, Popo and Nana griped their hammers tighter. They reached the slight hill that stood right next to the energy. In an arranged pattern, the Smashers formed together so that some where in front and the others right behind. His muscles tense, Mario climbed up to the top of the hill and dropped to the ground so that who ever was on the other side couldn't see him. Pikachu, Samus, Ness , Zelda and Kirby lay on ether side of him the others right behind, ready to jump in, should a fight start.

He had expected to see some kind of evil looking device or a monster from another dimension, but what he saw shocked him. The tall green grass was flattened out in a wide circle about a yard away from the hill, as if some giant animal had just sat down for a moment, before going on its merry way, but the earth all around it was completely untouched. The wide circle also incased one of the rare large grey rock that were dotted throughout the countryside. But it wasn't the grass flattened or untouched, or the rock that had shocked him so much, it was the two unconscious figures that lay within the circle. He narrowed his eyes, they where both female and they lay three feet apart. The one nearest was lying on their side, face turned away from them. She wore a skin tight black body suit without any sleeves, and black shoes. She had long blonde hair that was all different shades; the skin he could see was pale cream. Her left arm had a scar running down from her shoulder to her elbow, and she had some kind of gun holstered at her waist.

The other lay on her stomach, her face was also turned away from them. She had bright, snow white hair that was held in a high pony tail, and… he leaned forward a little so as to get a better look. Yes, she had long pointed ears like a Hyrulean. Her skin was darker than the others; it wasn't tan, so it must have been naturally darker, but not by much. She also was wearing a skin tight outfit, it was dark blue and the sleeves were only two inches long, and the legs came down so that they where four inches above her knee. Her boots reminded him of the ones that Impa wore.

"Samus?" Mario murmured thought the SALD.

"The blonde is human, she has a laser pistol, so she might be from my universe or Falcons. The one with the white hair is Hyrulean. She could be a Sheikah. Beyond that I don't know, my scanners are still mostly blocked, when there is an opening in the energy and I try to get deeper something jams me."

"Did everyone get that?" Mario whispered, conformation from everyone "All right, I think we should…" but at that moment the blonde shifted then lay still, the white haired one hadn't moved all.

Who where they? Where did they come from?


	5. Hard Landing

Disclaimer: All characters, Samus Aran, Link, Mario Mario, Pikachu, Mewtwo, Zelda, Peach, Luigi Mario, Impa, Daisy, Fox McCloud, Krystal, Captain Falcon, Jody Summer, Ness, Kirby, Donkey Kong, Sheik, are © or R to Nintendo corp.

The OC's (Original characters) of Toadrice, Chef Gamdin, Apollo, the black haired, green eyed boy, the made up tribe of Sheikans, Star, Grace, Lucky, Mercury, Gabriel, Zip, Wing Kass are all owned by Wolf—Shadow/WolfTrust/Wolf—Shadow's—Ghost, or whatever username she is using at the moment, and are not to be used without her permission. (Seriously people, I've invested a lot of time and effort into this story, and I really don't want my ideas to be ripped off)

**Chapter 4: Hard Landing**

Voices, murmurs, screams, they whirled around, inter- mingling, all becoming a jumble of sounds. She tried to concentrate, she couldn't drown out the mental turmoil that was threatening to pull her in, she had to regain consciousness.

Slowly she rose above the churning of her mind and memory, and managed to pull herself out of unconsciousness and wake her body. She forced herself to remain still, if there was any danger she wanted to look as though she was still knocked out and helpless. Slowly, cautiously, she gained control of every nerve, bone, muscle and sinew in her body and along with the control, came the pain. It felt as if every molecule in her body had been pulled apart then pieced back together, she ached all over, and the scar on her left arm burned white hot. Now her mind churned dizzyingly and her body wailed in agony, chaos seemed the most effective way to describe it.

She clawed her way even higher, above the pain, trying to assess her surroundings, as best she could, without opening her eyes. She was lying against something soft, but it itched against her bare skin, the air was clear and cool, laden with fragrances that crawled out from the dark corners of her memory, and yet were almost alien. The sounds were also very off to her, a gentle rustling, chirps and whistles, probably from birds. But how was that possible?

A softer sound pulled at her attention, breathing, very light, even breathing. Her mind had quieted and the pain had subsided into dull throbbing, she had learned everything that she could from this position and it was vital the she know who was near her. She opened her eyes and was nearly blinded by the light, 'how could it be so bright'? The stuff she was lying on was dark green, 'Grass? But… how?'

She moved slightly, getting used to her physical surroundings. Deliberately her right hand drifted down to her waist and touched cold smooth metal. Good, she still had her pistol, so she wasn't a captive. She reached out her right arm from underneath her body, and pushed herself up, a strand of blonde hair falling into her face. A stretch of green and blue hit her eyes, grass was growing freely everywhere she turned. The sky was bright, clear blue smattered with a few clean white clouds. The sun shone, completely unobscured, bathing everything within its grasp in a warm glow, the air that she breathed was crisp, fresh and free of dust particles or ash.

A glint of white and silver torn her eyes away from the shockingly beautiful landscape. She felt her stomach twist as she realized who was lying almost motionless beside her.

Grace." She whispered, it sounded calm but there was an underline of worry. She quickly scrambled, as quietly as she could, next to the Hylain. Grace's white hair was blindingly bright as the sun beat down upon it.

She placed her hand on Graces right shoulder and shook her ever so slightly, "Grace." She whispered again, still straining her ears to hear if a threat was nearby. She shook Grace again. What happened next came so fast that had she not been expecting it, could have killed her. One second Grace was lying on the ground apparently comatose, the next she had whipped up and around pressing the now unsheathed blade up against her throat. The blade had not broken skin but if she did anything besides breath blood would be spilt. So she patiently waited, sitting on her knees, her blue-grey eyes gazing unafraid into Grace's ruby colored ones.

"Star?" Grace asked as the mist clouding her eyes vanished and her kill or be killed instinct evaporated. Grace lowered the blade, but did not place it back within its sheath.

"Are you all right?" Star asked with concern, tilting her head to get a better look at her friend, lose blonde hair falling into her face. Over the course of their lives both Star and Grace had been told over and over, that they looked like younger versions of their Mothers. Grace had markings beneath her eyes, three white prongs came down from beneath her eye lids, the middle one pointed straight down while the ones on ether side curled up and toward the sky.

"I believe so." Grace replied her face sliding back into its usual stern thoughtfulness. "However I must confess that I haven't the faintest idea where I am." She continued looking around with much the same confusion and shock that Star had when first she had taken in this new turn of events.

She stood up, her tight, black outfit moving with her almost like a second skin, her bare arms hot from the sun. Where in the name of Adam where they? There was a wide circle of flattened grass all around them, slight rises in the land beyond the circle created a sort of minuscule valley in which they where near dead center.

A small sudden noise made both Star and Grace whip out their weapons and turn around so fast that in the time it took a person to blink, Star's gun was charged, humming and vibrating in her hand and Grace's short blade was back up, glittering in the light as both teenagers faced the rather large hill that had been at their backs, pointing the weapons at the crest of the rise.

The only movement they made was to breath, Stars sleeveless outfit flexing and stretching with her well toned abdomen and shoulders. They held themselves still for almost a minute, never moving an inch, then, beside her, Grace lowered her blade but her eyes continued to flit left and right along the crest.

"Hmmm," Star said quietly in her throat, "I don't see anyone, or anything, for that matter." She muttered in an undertone to Grace, who stood up beside her, high ponytail of white hair brushing around her sharp pointed ears. She opened her mouth and began to speak in a fast dialect that, to anyone else would have sounded like gibberish, but which Star understood perfectly, as she had helped create it.

I cannot hear anything, but they still might be there. Grace informed her I'd advise speaking in low tones, and not saying anything that could compromise who we are. She sheathed the weapon and the eye with the single teardrop engraved just below the hilt, glinted brightly.

I agree, Grace, especially since the experiment had every thing to do with time. she nodded as she decharged her weapon and placed it back within its holster.

A low moan made them both twist back around to stare at the large grey rock behind them, this time they did not draw their weapons as they knew who had made the noise.

"Wing." Star said worry plain on her face.

She and Grace quickly ran up and around the bolder. Lying just behind it in a

semi-unconscious state was a small human girl, dressed in a body suit that was similar to the ones that Star and Grace both wore, except that hers consisted of two pieces. Them top half was light pink, and had hot pink shoulder pads that extended a centimeter past her small shoulders, and sleeves that came all the way down to her wrists. The pants of the suit were four shades darker than the top, and the boots that came right up to her knees were a sort of purple pink. She had short, light brown hair and was lying on her side, so that her face was exposed. It was a small, rounded angelic face with cupids bow shaped lips. She was anywhere between ten and eleven years old.

Grace swiftly knelt down next to Wing and placed her right hand against her throat.

"Her heart is beating and she is breathing." Brace then slid her hand from Wings neck and up to her skull while Star stood above them watching with concern and listening for any more noises from the hill. "She has a small abrasion on the back of her head." Grace spoke up still running her fingers though Wings short spiky hair "I was afraid that she might have hit her head against the boulder, but it doesn't seem like it. It isn't serious, she will be fine." Grace removed her hand. She wore dark blue fingerless gloves that bore the same eye symbol as her blade. It would have looked exactly like the Sheikah eye of Truth, except that in the center of the eye stood three miniscule animals, to the left was a stag, the prongs of his horns jutting upward proudly, to the right was a wolf, it's head held high, it's muzzle wide in a silent howl, in the center was a large Eagle, wings outstretched and its head pointing downward. In the tear falling from the eye was a single tree sapling, thin, delicate limbs twining skyward defying gravity, tiny buds sprouting from every direction. Each tiny detail was embroidered in a bright crimson on the back of Graces gloves. This was Grace's personal sign, a combination of both religions she had been born into, and a constant reminder of her parents.

"When will she wake?" Star asked of her friend.

As if she had heard her leaders remark, Wing groaned, shivered a little and open her large emerald eyes. Grace shifted so as to get a better view of Wings face, and Star knelt down on her other side. She brushed a few strands of hair out of the young girls face as Wing began to blink the fog from her eyes.

"How do you feel?" Grace asked gently.

Wing did not answer immediately, instead she brought her arms up from under herself, pushed up so that she was sitting on her knees and surveyed the immediate area. Star could see her take in the circle of grass, the boulder, the clean air, everything that Star and Grace had both seen and been shocked by, was sinking into Wings mind, and while she observed the same details, her reaction was quite different than the other girls's had been. She looked between Star on her right and Grace on her left several times before asking in a light, childish, yet serious voice "Are we dead?"

To anyone else this question might have sounded silly, a funny question asked by an uninformed little girl, something to laugh about while eating a meal. But for Star and Grace who had seen many miserable things in their lives, the question was quite valid.

"I don't know," Star said, once more gazing around herself, she could have sworn she had just seen a butterfly flit by. "It doesn't seem possible, does it? How everything is so…" she trailed off, groping for the right way to describe this impossible situation.

"Peaceful." Grace finished for her.

Star pushed herself up and adjusted her dark orange belt strap so that she had a better angle to quick draw the now holstered pistol. "Yes……. Wing." She looked back down at the girl, and Wing looked up at her, some of the confusion had gone from her eye and been replaced with determination.

"Look at the charts you made, try and figure out what went wrong, how we can fix it and where we might be."

"What about the others? Where are they?" Wing said as she withdrew a small square screen from out of a nearly invisible pouch.

"We haven't seen or heard them." Grace replied standing up next to Star.

"But they have to be around here somewhere. If we all ended up in the same time frame, they should all be right here, correct?" Star said still looking at Wing who looked up from the illuminated touch pad which had many difficult graphs, diagrams, charts and math equations, scrawled all over the screen.

"Theoretically, yes."

"Theoretically?" Grace asked, arcing a snow white eyebrow. "If the calculations were off enough to send us, Din knows where, wouldn't it be plausible that the others might have been dropped off years ahead or years behind?"

Wing shook her head, short hair waving. "No, the only way that this works, is that once the time leap stops turning, everyone who was pulled along must stop at exactly the same moment in time. Time flows like water, always moving, and like water, it can be manipulated. But unlike water, time has its own unexplained rules, sometimes the rules can be figured out, other times they just can't be, so we just have to accept them for what they are. Time travel is tricky business without trying to figure out every rule atom by atom, and it probably will never be entirely perfected, there are just to many variables. I did warn you something like this was very probable, but if I can find the old machine, or build another one, I'm positive that I can figure out what happened and fix it."

Grace nodded but Star had on more question. "That still doesn't explain why the others didn't land here with us. If we all stopped at the same moment in time why not in space?"

Wing looked slightly bemused "Star, when you plan a trip to somewhere you can almost always correctly calculate how long it will take you to get there right? But can you calculate the exact spot your feet will touch when you get there, the way you will be standing, and what exactly you will see in front of you?" Wing waited a few moments before answering it herself "No, and it applies triple to time travel, especially since something made the calculations go off so badly." She looked back down at the pad and began to move the shapes around with her fingers. "Besides, the range of the machine wasn't that far so they are nearby somewhere. "Anyway," she chewed her lower lip "we'll probably hear them before we see them, the way they act."

"All right, Grace and I will keep a look out while you work on that." Star replied as she began to walk a little ways off of the boulder, Grace right behind. Once she was out of Wings earshot, she turned to the shadow warrior, "In every other respect, she is a child, but in her intelligence, she is triple her age." she murmured to Grace.

"You are quite scientific minded as well." Grace commented cocking her head.

"Not with time, that always gets my head spinning, I can wrap my mind around wormholes, plasma malfunctions, alien anatomies, and I can even tell you where to find the most reliable place to find the needle in the haystack, but time, forget it." Grace had opened her mouth to reply when,

"YHAAARRGG! Slow down dude! RGGG! Slow down!"

Star and Grace had both reached for their respective weapons and tightened their bodies preparing for a fight when they recognized the voice. It bespoke of a young man entering puberty, despite the way it was yelling.

"Mercury." Grace stated, narrowing her eyes and folding her arms.

"Oh come on, you've handled worse!" yelled a different voice, another young man, this one however was deeper, he had already entered puberty.

"That's Lucky, what are they doing?" Star wondered furrowing her brow.

"They're coming closer," Wing said from behind them, "and it sounds like they're coming from over there." She pointed away from the boulder and to a bluff opposite the one that the older girls had first heard a sound from. This one was not quite as high, and as the three stood and listened the breeze swept past them causing the grass outside the flattened circle to dance and sway. Subconsciously Star noted that the sun glittering on the grass coupled with the way the breeze blew it into the shadows and back into the light, made the ground look like a large beast breathing.

Another yell from the first voice and this one was definitely closer than the last, "Dude!" now they could hear something running, a fast steady pace sounding like a heartbeat. It was faint at first but it became louder and louder. Someone who hadn't known what was approaching would have been scared by the strange thump, thump, thump, that came nearer each second. Star, Grace and Wing however, were well acquainted with that sound and were not remotely frightened. The thumping continued, closer and closer, it was on the other side of the bluff, it was climbing… then something large and bright green towered over them at the top of the bluff, but only for a second, for then it leapt up and off, emitted a shrieky-snarling sound and landed with a slight whomp three feet in front of them. As soon as its feet were planted on the ground, one of the two people that had been on its back slipped and fell off on his backside, the young teenager still sitting on the green creatures back laughed and said, "You're never been able to hang on when Green stops running, Mercury."

Mercury looked up from his spot on the ground "Ha, Ha, very funny Lucky." Mercury had bright, yellow blonde hair that hung down in loose spikes, the tips of which faded into a bright red color. His eyes were sky blue and he had a sharp pointed chin. His outfit consisted of a dark orange tee-shirt with light orange flames coming up from the bottom and shooting up to his midriff, which he wore with loose dark blue jeans and red and gray tennis shoes. His body was of the shorter, stocky build and his skin was light cream.

Lucky chuckled. His hair was dark brown and stood up in every direction, the tips of his hair were also colored differently then the rest of his hair, standing out a deep green. His eyes where a shade of navy blue, his face was finely sculpted, with a strong jaw and high cheek bones. He also wore a loose tee-shirt, his a sage green with a stark yellow "L" that was shaped almost like a check mark, his pants and shoes where exactly like Mercury's, but his body shape could not have been more different. While Mercury was shorter and stocky, coming about up to Stars chin, Lucky stood right at her eye line, his legs and torso were very long, almost lanky. Both of their measurements, however , would soon become irrelevant, as both boys would soon reach their respective growth spurts.

Green was the creature that Mercury and Lucky had been riding. She was a large bight green Yoshi, though she looked very little like one. Instead of a large rounded snout with a small pleasant mouth, she had a long pointed muzzle. She opened this muzzle and with a noise that sounded like a laugh, showed off all of her sharp fangs. Her tongue was long and thin like that of a snake. While regular Yoshis had wide eyes on the front of there heads, Green had sharp, narrow, golden colored eyes on ether side of her face, the pupils of which were black slits. Her head flowed smoothy into her long, powerful neck,which then flowed into her shoulders and chest. Her arms where long and well toned with muscles, her hand boasted long claw like fingers, each one ending in a very sharp tip. At that moment, Greens hands were relaxed and flexible, but when she wanted them to, they would stiffen, become hard, and just as deadly as any sword.

Greens legs were ripped with powerful running muscles, thigh moving backward and into her knee joint, down to her calf, then into her ankle and finally curved into her feet. She wore no shoes like other Yoshi's, but then there was probably not a shoe in existence that would stay on Green's feet. Two long white claws grew out of the end of the green flesh, unlike Greens fingers, however, these were always hard and sharp. Able to tear through even the toughest of metals like they were tissue paper, but as deadly as they were, they were not the most intimidating thing about Green. On the inside of each foot was another claw, or rather, talon. It was placed farther back along than the others, and it curled and shaped itself into a hook. It was at least three and a half inches long, Green had separate control over it than the others, allowing her to dig it into a victim further without jamming the straight ones in as well. Her tail was longer than normal Yoshis, giving her balance as she ran at forty plus speed, the spikes lining her back were red and sharp. Over all, Green looked more like a Valsaraptor from ancient earth than one of the peaceful Dinosaurs from Yoshis inland. Only her coloring seemed to remain true. She had the typical white on her cheeks, throat, front side of her neck and under belly, all the way to the tip of her tail.

Green opened her muzzle and spoke, her voice was low, somewhat gravely, but pleasant all the same, "Seems like you aren't used to going fast." She hissed a little at the end of her sentence, her way of showing amusement. Lucky slid his legs around from Greens back and landed lightly next to her, Green stood about as tall as Star.

Mercury turned his eyes and glared up at Green, "I am just used to riding Red, thank you very much, he runs differently than you do."

"Yea," Wing called from where she was still sitting, she grinned at Mercury, "Slowly."

"I'm glad to see you women are safe." Lucky interjected as he helped Mercury to his feet.

"We're glad to see you too." Star said as she and Grace walked up to the boys. She cuffed Lucky on the shoulder in greeting and he did the same to her. Grace and Mercury exchanged the same greeting. Star quickly and as quietly as she could whispered to the three We've heard sounds from over the hill behind us, someone might be there, don't say anything that could compromise us. She stepped back a pace knowing that they understood and would follow the order, then she looked up at Green and said in a normal voice "How are you doing, Green?"

The Yoshi turned her head to look at her with one golden eye. "Bit sore from landing, fine otherwise."

"Good," Grace said "Have any of you seen Gabriel?"

"No we've only seen each other and you three, have you seen Red?" Mercury said

worriedly.

"Not a claw or scale of him." Wing answered walking up to stand just behind Grace and Star, still holding the glowing screen.

"Have you found out what happened?" Grace asked. Star noticed the worry that flit though the shadow warrior's eyes, but it was gone as fast as it had come.

"I'm getting there, I've almost got it figured out." Wing replied, looking up at Grace though wisps of dark hair

"I'm sure Gabriel's fine, he can handle himself." Lucky said with confidence.

"He probably landed with some of the others." Mercury added "So there's nothing to worry about."

"Yes, I know, but it is my duty to worry about his safety." Grace responded with a tired smile.

"If they don't show up within the next hour we'll…", Stars words were cut off by a loud yelp.

"Zip?" they all said in unison and turned toward the left of the bluff that Lucky, Mercury and Green had run from. Thump, thump, thump the sound of a running Yoshi came at them again, but the pauses between steps were longer and somehow each step sounded heaver.

"Here they come." Lucky said rubbing his hand just below Greens jaw line, she made a sort of clicking noise and leaned into it. Another yelp but this one was much lower in pitch.

"There is Gabriel." Grace said, some of the tension gone from her shoulders.

"Pikaaaa!" A bright yellow bolt raced down the slope as they stood watching. It ran almost up to Star, gave a mighty bound into the air and landed in Stars' arms.

"Kassandra.", Wing said happily looking up at the female Pikachu. Kassandra was a brighter yellow than most Pikachu; her back was bare, missing the two brown strips that were normal for most of her kind. The tips of her ears were colored black as was usual, but below that were two black rings, each had a quarter inch of yellow between each other. Kass like the others of the team was quite different than one would expect. "Chuu…" Kass hummed jumping on to Stars shoulder and balancing herself so that she was looking back from where she had run from.

"Glad to see you're okay." Star said to Kass, running her fingers behind the Electric Pokemons' ears.

They all continued to watch as the noise came closer, then a large red came up over the hill and thudded to a stop in front of the others, the two young boys sitting atop his back slid forward slamming into his thick strong neck. The boy in front gave a small squeal, and the one on behind him rammed his muzzle into the others back.

"Red!" Mercury said cheerfully coming up to stand next to Red. Red had the same body shape as Green, from the pointed muzzle to the long deadly talon, but Red was different in the respect that while green was long and lean, built to be a runner, Red was heavily muscled, his legs and arms thick and powerful. Red stood only a little taller than Green. The five spikes running down his back were as dark orange as Mercury's shirt, his skin was crimson and shone in the light, he was just as impressive as Green was to look at.

"Owww," the boy in the front said his voice still muffled due to the fact that his face was still planted in the back of Reds neck.

Quickly Star stepped forward and grabbed onto the furry arm of the boy behind and helped him down off of Reds high back. "Zip you might want to be a bit more careful next time you decide to ride Red."

Zip was not human, he was not Hylain either. In fact, he was a young fox cub from the Lyact system, with thin tawny colored fur and wide pale blue eyes, his muzzle was thin pointed and had a small brown nose. The fur under his jaw a light white, his ears were large, almost too big looking for his head, but that was typical for a fox his age. In between his ears was a sort of blaze of dark frosty blue fur, it started at his forehead and ended at the back of his neck. His white tee-shirt was mostly hidden by the sleeveless grey-green vest that he wore. His tight blue jeans with a hole in the back for his bushy tail, were held up by a black belt. Like Star he also had a gun holstered at his hip, but his was a Blaster, not a Laser Pistol.

"Hey, I would've been just fine running here by myself, but nooo, he said that it would be smarter and faster just to ride Red, because Red could smell you guys out and Red was faster then us, even though Red had to, like, sit on the ground for us to be able to climb on, and even then, Kass beat us here." Zip complained as Star set him on the ground. He only came up to her waist.

The boy still on Reds back pushed himself off of the Yoshis neck and back onto the white trimmed saddle. "Well he did find them faster then we would have." Gabriel said disorientated, running his fingers though his short wheat colored blonde hair.

"Never mind that," Grace said holding out her arms to help Gabriel down, 'if we let you two continue this conversation it will turn into an argument." She finished as Gabriel slid down into her grip.

"Okay." Gabriel said with a sigh as Grace set him down. He was almost two inches taller than Zip and his ears were long and sharp like Graces, but his skin was much lighter in color, and his eyes were a shade of expressive navy blue. His tunic was white with a brown leather strap that held the scabbard in which sat his short sword. The belt around his waist and the boots he wore were also leather of very good quality, and except for a few small scars that they all seemed to have, his arms were bare.

"I was worried about ya Red." Mercury said, flicking a strand of red hair out of his eye.

"No need to worry." Red's voice was even deeper than Green's and more gravely, but it also was pleasant. Green came up to Red and rubbed her head against his neck, making a sort of crooning noise.

"Well," Wing said walking up next to Gabriel and Zip "I told Star and Grace that we would hear you before we saw you."

"And you were right.' Star said scratching Kass under the chin.

"Maybe you should have bet on it, Wing." Lucky said leaning against Green.

Wing giggled "Probably."

"Hey," Gabriel interjected "where is Junior?"

"And Ree?" added Zip, the breeze ruffling his fur, a few strands of blue now visible though the tawny brown.

"You haven't seen them either?" Grace asked.

"Nope, just you guys." Zip replied scratching behind one of his overly large ears.

"Pika, chu chu, Picha?' Kass said holding her lighting shaped tail high into the air.

"No, Kass, we didn't all land here," Wing said looking up at the electric mouse "Grace, Star and I landed here. Lucky, Mercury and Green landed somewhere over there, and you four landed over in that direction."

"Wait a second," Lucky said holding up his hands and looking confused, "did anyone else see that pattern, three, three, then four and if Junior and Ree landed together, two, what is the deal with that?"

"I've been thinking about that," Star replied "from what Wing has explained to me, it sound like the reason we got split up the way we did was because of our mass. Gabriel, Zip and Kass are smaller, Red is pretty big, Mercury, and Lucky are about average, Green is only a little smaller than Red, Wing is smaller, Grace and I are larger than Lucky, but smaller than Red."

Grace nodded "That makes sense."

Mercury chimed in "Yea, and Junior is huge, while Ree is kinda tiny."

The breeze suddenly changed direction, now it was coming from the bluff at their backs, Green and Red instantly stiffened, thrusting their heads upward and began to sniff the air, Kass fur stood on end and she too started inhaling the air.

There are people behind that hill. Green growled

Lots of people. Red added clicking his tongue.

"Pikaaa…" Kass rumbled. Star and Grace glanced at each other, grim acknowledgement on their faces.

We heard them a while ago. Grace told the others, foundling the handle of her blade.

What do we do Star? Mercury said, purposely not looking at the hill so as to keep suspicion down.

Star considered for a moment as the others pretended to talk about important things in dialect so as to buy time.

We wait for Junior and Ree, and then we'll see if they're hostile or not. She concluded shifting her weight around as Kass jumped off her shoulder. The others all nodded their agreement.

A few moments passed, while they stood quietly, bodies tense and rigid. Wing sat back down and continued to work on the screen, Lucky absentmindedly rubbed Green just above her brown saddle, Mercury was kneeling in the grass talking to Kass while Red stood over and watched. Grace and Gabriel discussed something about tradition, while Zip listened in, torn between amusement at how the discussion was turning out and fear at who was behind the hill. Star stood a little off to the side, lost in her own thoughts. In the present company she was the eldest, then came Grace, Lucky, Mercury, Zip, Gabriel and Wing. Junior exceed her by about double, and no one knew how old Kass and Ree were, it really wasn't important. Red and Green were about the same age as Luck and Mercury, though as Yoshis had a different maturity rate, they could easily pass as twenty. And yet, she was their leader. Even though Junior was by far the eldest, she had been chosen to command, to make the tough decisions, to know where everyone was and what they were doing, and, in situations like this, to bring all the pieces of the puzzle that had been brought to her together, and try to make the right decision. It wasn't easy, but then, what in their lives had been?, she thought bitterly.

The mood was tense, all talk had slowly dwindled and still there was no sign of Ree nor Junior.

Maybe they're farther away than any of us were. Zip said nervously winding his fingers around the fur on his tail.

Ree should be able to sense where we are. Red rumbled.

It might be a good idea if we went looking for them, we've had pretty good luck all coming to this one spot, but now we might have to risk it, and just walk away from them. Lucky said grimly. The others all turned and looked at Star, who thought for a moment. I agree, lets… but her order was interrupted by a feeling that touched their hearts and minds, that seemed to say, 'No matter what happens every thing will be okay'. It wasn't a thought, just a feeling.

Ree is coming. Wing said, her eyes closed, enjoying the warmth that was always soothing.

"Mew." said a soft, mystical, silky voice. They all shifted to look to the rise that was in-between the two that the others had come from, as over it something rose It was bright, the sunlight reflected off of it making it hard to look at, but as it hovered higher into the air it became more clearly defined. It was a Mew, one of the most powerful and rare Pokemon in existence.

"Hi Ree." Gabriel said smiling, though his hands were still fisted.

Like the rest of the group, Ree was quite different than others of her race. As she drifted closer, they could see all of the things they knew about Ree and more, because of the bright light. Ree had very short soft fur covering her body, it's color was a powdery baby blue, which shone and glittered in the sun. She hovered even closer, now drifting down the hill, her eyes were large and very bright pink. "Mew, me, mw Mew.", she said, stopping at the bottom of the hill. She waved her long tail up between her long feet and leaned backward, as if sitting against something. Another wave of calm passed over them, Ree using her physic powers to help them think straight.

"Ahem, sorry for being late." said a very deep clear voice Everyone, including Ree, looked back up to the top of the rise. A large, hulking shape rose up, Junior in all his glory. On his back was a large green shell with pale gold, foot long spikes Two horns grew out of either side of his head; in between them his flaming red hair was combed neatly back against his skull, orange eyes stared out from behind large, thick, black rimmed glasses. The skin on his face was as dark green as his shell. His mouth, which was lined with sharp fangs, was yellow orange as were his thick muscled legs and arms. White claws tipped the ends of his thick fingers and toes. Out of the bottom of his shell, his short orange and yellow tail waved back and fourth as he walked. Junior was a true Koopa royalty in all his adult prime and glory.

He began to follow Ree down the hill, surprisingly making no sound despite his size and weight. "I'm afraid that I am not quite as fast as the rest of you." Junior reached the bottom of the hill and, Ree following alongside him, approached the rest of the group. "Ah, it looks like we all created a circle of flat grass when we landed," He reached up and adjusted the glasses on his face.

"Side effect of the jump." Wing said, her emerald green eyes narrowed in concentration as she moved things around on the pad.

"Yes, I surmised as much." Junior nodded his horned head.

"Why didn't Ree just contact us when she sensed where we were?" Star asked looking up at Junior who towered over her by at least three feet.

"Mew, me, mew" Ree answered.

So you sensed them too. Mercury stated switching the dialect back into the swift code. Ree nodded.

Could you tell who they are? Green asked. Ree gave a slow shake of her head.

Something blocked her. Junior added.

Star, now that everyone is here, what are we going to do, about them? Grace said, her hand resting on Gabriel's shoulder.

Star had just opened her mouth to answer when sounds erupted behind them, and her reflexes kicked in. In an instant she had once again pulled her laser pistol and pressed the button to load the energy inside of it, while she whirled around and brought the gun up to point at the top of the hill. The others had all done the same, the shing of two blades being pulled from their scabbards, the crackling of electricity, snarling from both Red and Green, the shifting of feet on grass as Lucky and Mercury got into fighting stances, a sort of shimmering hum as Ree formed a bubble of energy around herself..

Yes, physically they were ready for whatever fight would come their way, but nothing they had ever done could have prepared them, mentally, for what they saw. Twenty-odd people lined the top of the hill, each pointing some kind of weapon down at them. They were also fanning themselves out along the other hills, slopes and dips that encircled them, so that they could not easily escape. But being outnumbered and outgunned was not what caught Star off guard, every single face, from human, Hyrulean, Pokemon, animal and even unknown, were faces that she knew by heart, and thought of constantly. Automatically her eyes searched for one in particular, while still holding her weapon high. Her blood ran cold as she found the one she was looking for, a tall figure clad in orange amour, a green cannon on the woman's right arm. No this couldn't be, fate could not be this cruel, not now. Why? Why?

She could sense, rather than see, the others behind her also search for faces that they remembered from very young ages. She continued to stare with wide, shocked eyes at the armored woman, staring into the green visor, fighting down absolute shock, fear, and deep grief. No, this could not be happening. She managed to tear her eyes away from the line of people and look back at her own team, their expressions were very similar to her own. Grace's face was a white as her hair, the boys were all tense, with varying expressions in their eyes, the Yoshis where still growling softly. Junior wore an expression that was a curios mixture of mild surprise and interest. Her eyes snapped back around to the woman.

Nether side moved, it seemed to last an eternity. Stars team was too paralyzed with shock to say anything and the others seemed to be waiting for them to make the first move. The tone was broken only by the faint rustle of the wind, now completely unimportant.

"Err… who are you?", someone finally broke the silence, but Star's brain would not come into focus. She needed to turn her head, needed to see who had spoken, but all she could center on was that person, the person that could not be there, after everything that had happened… .But she couldn't be like this, she couldn't break, the others were all feeling the same thing and they looked to her for guidance. She had to be strong. With great effort Star pulled her eyes away from the woman she had known so well, and found the one who had spoken.

He was a rather short man with a black mustache, blue overalls and a red shirt and cap, she knew that Mercury was probably staring very hard at this man or at the bright blonde haired woman beside him.

She opened her mouth, trying to find the words that would say that they all meant no harm. The trick was to do it without telling them anything about who those in her group were. "Uhh…" she said lamely, her mentality still numb. Then something kicked in, a sort of barrier to her emotions, it helped her think clearly without fear and sorrow ruling her decisions. But before she could say anything Wing gave a small gasp.

Uh oh… she said

Uh oh? What do you mean uh oh? Star heard Mercury say in a voice throttled with panic and terror whenever you say uh oh, its always a really bad thing.

It is already a really bad thing. Grace said her voice devoid of emotion.

What have you found out, Wing? Star asked in a voice that she did not recognize, her eyes trailing away from the red capped man and onto the others that stood on either side of him.

We went father back then I thought… Wings voice was hushed, as Star continued to stare at the people on the hill. Four elven people, blonde, grey and white haired, a Pikachu, a Pichu…

Guys, we don't exist here, they don't know who we are, we aren't born yet.

There was utter silence as everyone took in Wing's words and what they meant. On the top of the hill the adults were getting restless, speaking in low voices to each other or fidgeting with their weapons.

Are you sure we're not dead? That would make more sense. Gabriel replied. No one answered him, they all knew Wing spoke the truth.

Stars eyes shifted over the two short people with mallets and on to a large purple cat- like Pokemon. Unlike the others he was not in any kind of fighting stance, he merely hovered above the ground, arms folded, scrutinizing them. As if he had felt her gaze on him, his head slowly came round, large liquid purple eyes looking deep into her blue-grey ones. A voice passed though her mind, a voice that only she was allowed to hear.

I know who you really are.

If it was even possible, she felt more blood drain from her face, she thought back hard, knowing that he would hear. Then do you know how dangerous it could be if they knew?

Mewtwo did not have time to answer for at that moment a strong, female, oddly metallic voice called out, "Mario asked you a question, are you going to answer him or are you going to try and fight us?" Star removed her gaze from the hypnotic eyes and turned to locate who had spoken. She found herself once again staring at the woman in the technologically advanced amour. She became dimly aware that she was still holding the loaded pistol pointed at the top of the hill.

"Well?" the woman asked again, not moving an inch from where she held the green arm cannon.

The barrier around Star's emotions strengthened, and something inside her brain clicked, this kind of thing seemed to come with the territory of being leader. She pressed a small knob on the pistol, unloading the energy within it and lowered it so fast that some of the people on the hill started and griped their weapons tighter. Quickly she slid the light grey weapon into the holster at her waist. She held her hands in the air as a sign of truce, and said something that had been spoken many times in the things that her ancestors had called movies, and though usually the person who had spoken turned out to be a liar, in this case, Star truly meant it when she said "We come in peace."

She made a slight movement with her fingers, signaling the others to relax. The crackling of electricity stopped, the vibration of energy ceased as Ree lowered the pink bubble around herself, a shink as Grace and Gabriel put away their blades, metal on fabric as Zip holstered his blaster, many loud clicking noises as Red and Green relaxed their hands the bones in their fingers refitting themselves, and finally the rustling of grass as Lucky and Mercury stood up straight, all indicating to Star that her team had done exactly what she asked of them and hopefully made themselves less threatening.

There was no response from the other side, Star and her group waited to see what would happen next. The others on the hill were clearly trying to decide if this was some sort of trick. As if it would answer that question for them, a rather tall man wearing blue overalls, a green shirt, cap and a black mustache, stepped forward, squinted down at them and asked, "My brother asked who you are. If you would tell us that maybe we could decide if you really mean no harm."

If you knew who we truthfully are, your brains would probably explode. Zip said. On the hill the blue vixen shifted and held her staff closer.

Grace must have turned and glared at Zip, for a second later he added What? They can't understand what I'm saying.

Code names, everyone, stick with codenames. Star hissed then said "I am called Star, I cannot tell you more than that as it may cause irreparable harm."

"We heard you speak of time travel, are you from the past or future?" asked a tall dark haired woman wearing a light pink jumpsuit. Wing would be watching her, Star knew.

"I am Grace." Grace shot back straightening her shoulders even more than they already were.

Before anyone on the hill could say anything Gabriel jumped in, "Gabriel is what they call me."

"And I'm Zip." added the young fox.

The others had caught on, if they kept them busy telling them their names it would give them a chance to come up with satisfying answers.

"I'm Lucky," The brown and green haired human added, walking closer to Star and Grace, "this is Ree," he gestured to the blue Mew who was still hovering above their heads "and this is Kassandra, we just call her Kass." He nodded to the mouse.

"Mercury." Mercury grunted, Red and Green just made little growling sounds that sounded relatively like their color orientated names.

"I'm sure some of you have guessed mine," Junior said, his deep voice mellow. Star turned her head to look at him, and remembered that he was probably the reason that the others still held their weapons tightly. Junior reached up and adjusted his black rimmed glasses, "I am Junior." Star turned her head back around.

Every singe person, pokemon, animal and unknown, was staring wide eyed at Junior.

Mario spluttered "Junior? Bowser Junior? Not, not Bowsers son?" He finished his rambling but his mouth remained open in shock.

"The very same, who else could I be?" Junior responded, Star could just imagine the small grin that he had on his face, a blend of smugness and humor as if he had just told a rather amusing joke.

"A brother or cousin perhaps?" said a brown haired woman who wore a small golden tiara on her head. She stood next to the man with the green cap. Star furrowed her brow, burrowing deep into the blackened corners of her memory, trying to bring up their names, oh, the man was Luigi and the woman was Daisy.

Junior gave a short laugh but said nothing. The blonde women with long elf ears, blinked and shifted her fingers to get a better hold on the needle like daggers that she held, then said in an undertone "Well that answers whether they are from the past or future."

What was her name? Zelda, yes Zelda. Star could now dreg up the names of all the people on the hill. Well, at least the ones that she had not thought about for awhile, the rest had been burned into her memory.

"If you are allies with Bowser's son, then how can we trust you?" retorted a tall dark man, Captain Falcon, though she thought his first name was Douglas . The others all along the hill murmured their agreement and began to whisper to each other, looking down on them with suspicion. Star opened her mouth to answer, then closed it What could she tall them without revealing who they were. She glanced round at the others, looking to see if they had found an answer to that problem. Grace's brows were knitted in thought, Gabriel and Zip had the exact same expression of blank thought, Ree had placed her head against her paw and was clearly thinking very hard without success. Kass was sitting back on her haunches with a sort of mixture of confusion and thought. The rest all wore similar expressions. Even Junior looked nonplussed, not a good sign.

She turned back around, her mouth dry, "I'm sorry, but I can't give you a good reason for that right now."

There was more muttering, and more shifting of weapons. It didn't look like they were getting out of this easily. 'So what else is new?' she thought bitterly. Then something happened that shocked both sides and gave her team some small relief.

I vouch for them. Mewtwo said, his voice echoing through all their minds.

She turned back to Mewtwo. He still held the same pose in the air, but his head was turned and he was gazing calmly at Mario, who stood several places down from him, and, like the rest of the group, looked as though the ground had been pulled out from under him and that gravity had gone with it.

"What are you saying, Mewtwo?" questioned the red haired swordsman, Roy, in righteous anger. "That you trust them?"

Completely. Once again the others looked like they had been caught in a sonic boom, most of them reeled back, some winced and the rest glared down at them as though trying to see what Mewtwo could possibly trust.

"We don't need very much." Wing whispered to Star, the others all pulled closer to hear what she had to say. "I just need a quiet area to work in and a few supplies. I don't think the machine came through with us for some reason. None of you saw it did you?" she turned and looked at the others, they all shook their heads. Ree flicked her long tail and looked up at Mewtwo.

"We don't even know 'em how can you trust 'em?!" hollered Donkey Kong waving his tree trunks for arms in the air.

I do know them. Well enough to trust them, and to know that they are telling the truth.

"You've met them before?" asked the tall white haired Hylain woman, Impa.

"Or did you just scan their minds and find out they were good people?" added the orange armored woman, her voice laden with sarcasm.

Number two.

That did it, arguments broke outright, questions were shot at Mewtwo, pairs of people bent their heads together. Star could see that this was getting them nowhere fast. She couldn't give them any reason to trust Junior, and not trusting Junior made Star and the rest untrustworthy as well. Despite how dangerous it could be, and whatever repercussions could follow, Star knew that she had to take charge of the situation. She glanced at Grace who nodded her agreement.

"Excuse me. " she said loudly. The Smashers who had not engaged in discussion looked down at her, Kirby, Pichu, Marth, Daisy and Ness were now totally focused on her, but that wasn't enough, "I need to speak with you." she called, even louder than before. A few pairs broke up and stared down at her, Fox, Krystal, Impa, Apollo, the Ice Climbers, and the trio of Roy, Captian Falcon and Jody Summers.

Star raised an eyebrow. How on Zebas had these people managed to defeat their enemies like they had, if they were so lax about watching a still possible threat? Sure her side was quite outnumbered, but didn't they know that situations could change in the blink of an eye or that things were not always what they seemed?

Well the subtle approach wasn't working very well, they'd have to try a more direct line. She twisted to look at the others, inclined her head at them, then turned back around and placed her thumb and forefinger into her mouth. With timed perfection that had been honed over years of battling, Star, Grace, Gabriel, Lucky, and Mercury all blew hard though their fingers, creating a short shrill blast that reverberated around the small dips and valleys within the large plain. Wing and Zip didn't do it as they didn't know how and the rest had impractically shaped mouths for the job. All talk ceased and everyone's attention was upon Star.

"Mewtwo vouches for us, I can give you my word that as big of a threat Junior seems to be, he will cause no trouble." Stars eyes flitted up at Ree, who looked down at her and giggled, "We do have a Mew with us and you out number us. Doesn't any of that count for something?" Silence, save for the breeze running though the grass and the wild birds.

I vow that they will not cause any harm, they did not come from the future to destroy the past, and-

"I'm still not convicted," Apollo said "They could be tricking Mewtwo's mind. What if they are some kind of assassins? They have the weaponry for it."

"And what does having a Mew with you count for anything? Why hasn't it spoken?" added the blue haired prince Marth, "I find that suspicious."

"What are those raptor things? They look very dangerous by themselves. Put them next to Junior there and you could tear a whole city down." Fox Mcloud held his blaster at his side and was glaring at Red and Green who both made growling noises at him.

"You expect us to let you walk around our base of operations fully armed and with powerful allies?" questioned the warrior clad in green, Link that's what his name was, his eyes roved over Ree, Junior, Red and Green.

"They are just kids you know, how bad could they be?" chimed in a black haired boy with a red and blue baseball cap.

Star had heard enough. She turned around to her group and motioned them all closer so they could speak freely, but not before hearing the Smashers Pikachu saying "Look who's talking, Ness ."

What do you think?" she asked when they had all pulled together.

This sucks. Mercury said tiredly. Red nodded his elongated head in agreement.

I think she means how do we get them to trust us enough to let us stay outside of their prison, not how do we feel about the situation. Junior said delicately

Weapons handover? suggested Lucky, blowing a strand of green hair out of his eyes.

I concur, if we show them a gesture of good faith, perhaps they would be more inclined to trust us. Grace replied tracing a finger around her eye markings.

Mayhap, but I don't like the idea of handing over your weapons. Red growled.

What if they take them apart and learn things they aren't suppose to know? Green added, her long tail whipping around in the air. And we don't like having you weaponless. Red dug his long talons deep into the earth as he growled his agreement.

However, Junior cut in gently They wont be defenseless, they've learned how to fight in each others styles, so they are deadly with, or without their weapons.

"Chuuu, pika, kachu, pi." Kass said, a look of worry on her small pointed face.

Kass is right, that still doesn't solve the problem of them finding out too much, if and when they take apart are weapons, not to mention that they are probably going to ask for blood samples or something, to check for diseases, or what not. What happens when they look at our DNA? Gee, doesn't that look familiar? Mercury snapped his arms folded. It was unusual to see him like this, he was usually happy-go-lucky, but Star could see why this situation would change his outlook. It had already changed hers.

He has a point… Zip said sadly

Star thought about it for a moment. She could feel the people on the hill becoming more and more uptight with every second that passed.

Mewtwo knows who we are. she replied quietly.

What? Wing asked startled.

How do you know that Gabriel asked.

He told me. When our eyes met he spoke to me. He did scan us and he really knows who we are. I'm not sure what else he knows. she answered in the same quiet voice.

How do we know that he won't tell them? Mewtwo is not an easy personality to predict. Grace reminded her. He is not a bad person, but he plays life differently than most do, you never know why he does the things that he does, not until much later.

Star considered this, but she had already reached the only conclusion that she could think of. We'll give our weapons to Mewtwo, and only Mewtwo. He'll keep them in a very safe place, right Ree? Star looked up at the Mew, the sunlight glittering her blue fur.

"Me, ew, mew, me. " she said, pink eyes shining.

Good, does that sound allright to everyone else? She looked around the circle. They all nodded, Mercury, Zip, Red and Green with some reluctance. and we'll trust him to know what he's doing with the information he has, at least for now. They all pulled apart and faced the top of the hill.

"You know that we are from the future," Star started, choosing her words carefully. "We are not assassins trying to change the course of events. We landed in your time period by accident, we need a place to stay and some supplies if we are going to get back." She paused then added, "Or forward, if you know what I mean. Red and Green will cause no more damage than Junior, I give you my word."

"As we give ours." Junior said holding his right clawed hand in the air. Red and Green followed suite.

"And as to walking around your HQ armed such as we are," Star continued, pulling her pistol from its' holster, (the others on the top if the hill all jumped) and holding it out on the palm of her right hand where it gleamed in the sun and its cold surface sank into her flesh. "We extend an offering of truce. We will entrust our weapons into the care of Mewtwo, just Mewtwo. If he agrees, he will keep them in a safe place, where no one can get at them, until we are ready to leave." Behind her Grace undid her blade from her belt, Gabriel did the same with his sash, Zip removed his blaster and held it out much the same way Star did, and Wing slowly removed a light red bracelet from her left wrist. It looked perfectly normal, but the jewel at it's center fired a pretty powerful laser. The rest stood still, having nothing that could be taken away.

Not a sound, this was quiet a turn of events. "You still haven't said why it is important that you have a Mew on your side." Marth said lamely, a poor excuse to buy more time for them to think about their proposition.

Mew rarely appear, Mewtwo answered for them and when they do it is only before pure-hearted people, or if there is an extremely worthy cause, that is why having… Hmm, Ree?, on their side is a good reason to let them stay. Mewtwo looked back down at them I accept your gesture of good will and agree to hold your weapons in a safe place. Now, all you need is permission from the collective Smash Brothers team.

The Smashers… she had forgotten that's what they called themselves.

"One moment please." Mario said. The Smashers all turned together and started to speak among themselves. "Well I suppose we should… "But what if… " "I still don't like…" Star could hear every word they said but decide not to pay too much attention to detail. She ran her fingers down her scar, she was beginning to notice how the sun made her fine skin burn, and her black suit wasn't helping much either.

"Pika, chu, chu pik." Kass said flopping down on her back side at Stars feet.

"Mew, mew, em." Ree said sitting on Graces shoulder, her long tail falling down behind Graces back.

"Yes," Grace agreed softly "it is very strange to be back in the light."

The Smashers above them seemed to have come to a decision. They all moved back into their positions, then Mario stepped forward, cleared his throat unnecessarily and said "We've agreed to let you stay. We have guest quarters that you may spend the nights in, and those of us that have knowledge about this sort of thing are willing to assist you."

"Thank you, you are most generous." Grace said, giving a short bow of her head. Her eyes flicked to Impa, and the tall, dark, grey haired man that stood next to her. Star looked too, both faces had a slightly startled look to them. Star's throat tightened. Out of all the Smashers (Excluding Mewtwo) those two were most likely to realize who her group could be. She pulled her eyes back to Mario. Not all of Mercury's valid points had been addressed yet.

"We must insist, for the safety of all those involved, that you do not ask for, or take, any kind of blood, skin, or hair samples from us. This also means that you may not scan us with any kind of computer either. I know for a fact that we carry no kind of virus or disease."

They must have already considered this for Luigi answered instantly "Agreed."


	6. Retrospect

Orignialy Published on the Nintendo Insider forums under the screen name of WolfTrust

Disclaimer: All characters, Samus Aran, Link, Mario Mario, Pikachu, Mewtwo, Zelda, Peach, Luigi Mario, Impa, Daisy, Fox McCloud, Krystal, Captain Falcon, Jody Summer, Ness, Kirby, Donkey Kong, Sheik, are © or R to Nintendo corp.

The OC's (Original characters) of Toadrice, Chef Gamdin, Apollo, the black haired, green eyed boy, the made up tribe of Sheikans, Star, Grace, Lucky, Mercury, Gabriel, Zip, Wing, Kass, and the concept of the yoshi evolutions, Red and Green, are all owned by Wolf—Shadow/WolfTrust/Wolf—Shadow's—Ghost, or whatever username she is using at the moment, and are not to be used without her permission. (Seriously people, I've invested a lot of time and effort into this story, and I really don't want my ideas to be ripped off)

Chapter 5: Retrospect

"As per our truce, we offer our weapons." Star held out her pistol, behind her the others did the same. Mewtwo made no move, but the weapon in her hand began to glow, multicolored shapes glittering over its surface, there was a small flash and it faded away like static. Star's palm faced the sky, empty. The whole process took about two seconds. She dropped her hand and looked up, all their weapons were gone. Now, obviously satisfied, Mario turned and said "Follow us."

"Wait," Luigi said before anyone could move. Inwardly Star groaned, had he found something else to play twenty questions with them about? Luigi squinted down at someone behind her, she followed his gaze to Lucky.

"Do I know you from somewhere?" he asked.

This was a question that could invoke very different reactions from her group, either to laugh at the pure irony, or to scream out and fall sobbing to their knees in sorrow. Lucky had a different tact, he stared up at Luigi with an empty face, then said "Not yet."

Luigi blinked and looked puzzled, Green jerked her head around and elbowed Lucky in the ribs. Lucky winced and looked at Green who inclined her head at him and made a little growling sound. Lucky turned his head around but did not look back up. There was a pause as the Smashers took in what Lucky had said and tried to figure it out.

Then Junior cleared the air by saying, "Are we going to start walking or are we just going to stand here and stare at each other all day?"

"Right," Mario said still looking a bit lost "Right. Follow us." He turned and started walking away, some of the others followed but the rest stood still and waited. So, they were going to form a circle around them, well that was fine. Star started walking up the hill, her long blonde hair falling into her face, she heard the others follow her out of the flattened circle of grass. She reached the top of the hill and glanced to her right. The tall woman in armor was standing only a couple of feet away. She turned her head back to the front as pain welled in her heart.

Her group formed a preplanned pattern around and behind her. Once they reached the top of the hill and started walking down the other side the Smashers did exactly what Star predicted they would, some began to walk beside them while the rest waited until they were past before starting forward and closing rank around them, so that no matter where they turned, someone would be there. If they had been anyone else, Star and her team would have fought them off at a moments notice, but this was different.

The woman in the armor was still beside her ,walking at an even pace, Star couldn't see though her visor but she knew the woman was gazing at her steadily, making sure she wouldn't pull any smart moves. Star hadn't even had to try and remember this Smashers name, it had been burned into her heart and mind for her entire life, and would not be forgotten. Samus, Samus Aran, that was her name, Star still had trouble dealing with the fact that she was here. Alive, breathing, walking, it made her soul hurt just to think of it. After all that had happen, all she had endured, this had to come along, but like the leader she was, she pushed aside this emotional blow

and focused on getting her friends back home.

There was silence on the way back to wherever the Smashers had come from, only the occasional person that would glance at one of them then turn and engage in a short lived conversation with the person nearest them, then silence would roll over them again.

Occasionally Star would spot land marks that were oddly familiar, but when she tried to inspect closer the feeling would vanish and she would once again be staring at unknown green land.

The walk wasn't very long, though to her team it seemed to take hours, but then they made a trek over a small rise, rounded another and there not fifty yards before them stood a sight that stopped her dead. The shock was not quite as bad as when she had seen the Smashers for the first time in… well, she did not know how long, but it was still enough to drain the color back out of her face. The Smash Mansion , intact, whole. Five stories high, its brown paint stood out almost bronze in the light, broken only by shining windows, both sides of the yard were blocked by the imposing hedge fence. Two marble pillars split the fence and each held one half of the large, black, spiked iron gate which stood open.

"By the Goddess." Gabriel said standing between Star and Grace.

"Dude." Mercury said his mouth open.

"Pikaa," Kass added to the fragments of sentences.

"Isn't that a site to behold." Junior stated rubbing his chin.

The Smashers were looking at them very oddly, well, even more oddly than they had been doing so far.

"What's up with you people?" the Smasher's Pikachu asked "You act like you've never seen the Mansion before."

"How far exactly, in the future are you from?" Princess Zelda asked kindly.

Star remembered with a mental slap that even having this kind of a reaction to something that the Smashers were so used to seeing and thought would stand forever, could indirectly altar the path of events. She snapped her back up straight and forced her face to relax and go blank.

We need to be as detached as possible. she said to the rest once we're in private we can get emotional and yell at each other at how cruel and unfair life is, but for the sake of everything that we've ever tried to preserve, keep you reactions in check.

The other all did as she said, Mercury shut his mouth, Grace relaxed her body but her face remained tight, the effect was the markings under her eyes looked even more deadly.

Star having been the last one to speak was now under the limelight for many pairs of eyes. Calmly she stared straight into Mario's and said "Well, are we going or not?" He raised an eyebrow at her, but said nothing just turned toward the Mansion.

"You're the one that stopped." said Samus with a little distain. Star refused to look at her even though Samus still walked beside her.

When they came to the gate Star hesitated. There was security hiding in the hedge, would it read them invalid or would it recognize part of their DNA? Her hesitation last only a moment, then she stepped though. Nothing happened, she continued walking, hearing the footsteps of the others on the gravel road, she knew what was coming but had to act like she did not.

A loud alarm blared over the landscape, and a computerized voice spoke out from each of the Marble columns, as the whirring of machines burst forth from the greenery itself. "ENEMY OF THE SMASH BROTHERS, DO NOT COME ANY CLOSER OR WE WILL ELIMINATE YOU, YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED."

Star turned around. Junior stood about two yards away from the gate with many strange black weapons pointed at him, all coming from the hedge. Many kinds of guns, some long sharp implements that could run through even the toughest of shells, two saw blades that were spinning in place while whirring loudly, even a mallet held high in the air, each held up by a long black metal arms with apparently well oiled gears.

"Impressive security system." Junior said looking mildly amused by all the dangerous weaponry pointed directly at him.

"Forgot it was on." Captain Falcon said with the air of someone who had obviously not forgotten.

"I would have thought that it would have found me from a lot farther off." Junior added now tapping one of his long claws on the nearest gun and inspecting in interestedly.

"It might have had problems identifying your cellular makeup with all of us walking so close together." Jody said. Star felt Wing pull closer to her. There was something else that was bothering the Smashers though, and while Samus was connecting with the security to make it let Junior through, Star hoped they would not guess

"Done." Samus said, and the security withdrew back into the hedge, which looked now as innocent as ever.

Come. Mewtwo said and hovered past Mario toward the large mahogany door. Everyone followed. The door opened itself as Mewtwo reached it. Star was amazed, the entrance hall had checker board black and white tile, and stairways to the left and right that formed the arch, she had forgotten how beautiful it was. Once everyone was in the hall, the door slowly closed and Mario looked at Star. "Impa, Ness , Captain Falcon and Mewtwo will show you to your rooms. Mewtwo will then give you directions on were things are located around the mansion."

"By the way, my name is Yoshi," chimed in the green dinosaur "I can't believe we forgot to introduce ourselves, that's Mario and his brother Luigi and there's-"

"Oh, we know all your names." Zip interrupted without thinking. Instantly Gabriel and Wing each reached up a hand and seized Zips muzzle. His large eyes widened farther and he slapped a furry hand over his mouth. Yoshi was left quite lost, his hands still in an introductory gesture, mouth open in surprise.

"You know our names?"" asked Krystal leaning against her staff.

"How do you know us?" Yoshi said dumbstruck, dropping his hands limply at his side.

"By reputation." Lucky said quickly.

A pause, then Grace said "We have things to discuss and would like to go to our room to do it in private."

Right this way. Mewtwo responded before anyone else could, and started to hover up the right hand stairway. Grace started swiftly after him, Gabriel right at her side, Star followed with the others at her side. The other three escorts had to take the left stairway. Reaching the top of the landing and starting off down the hall she heard Roy mutter to Marth "I still get a bad feeling around those kids."

As they walked Star remember exactly which room belonged to whom and how she used to run down these halls with her mother, in what felt like a separate life. Everything was so clean to her, it almost felt sterile. Whatever she touched was almost frictionless, everything seemed to have it's own glow, or maybe she was just to used to living in the dark. The longer she stayed in this place the more the tender memories resurfaced in her mind, ones that she only re-watched when she tried to go to sleep. Star noticed that Grace stayed as far away as possible from the white haired Sheikah woman, not that Star could blame her.

Here is one room, Mewtwo said stopping in front of an unmarked door. It opened soundlessly. 'Mewtwo must be using his powers' she thought as he glided through the door. I don't know how you arrange yourselves, so if two or three of you want to share a room you could. Mewtwo's voice drifted though her mind as the rest of her team filed in. She stayed behind, waiting for Junior to squeeze through. Suddenly her body stiffened and her entire being became alert. Soft footsteps walked up from behind her, she turned away from the door and twisted around to look, then felt the floor fall away from her.

Samus was walking down the hall in full amour, she made almost no sound, and if Star had been any less trained, she never would have heard the Hunter coming. Samus' head turned and looked directly at Star. The bounty hunters feet faltered for a moment, then slowly she walked forward till she stood level with Star, who stood only a head shorter. Star stared up into the green visor. She could see the outline of the woman's face. Samus shifted very slightly so that one of the large shoulder pads shielded her helmet from the light, allowing Star to see her eyes. The visor tinted her eyes, making them more green than they really were, but that didn't matter, she could remember the exact hue of blue-grey that those eyes were, the shape of her face, the color of her hair… Impa, who was still standing in the hall, must have moved, for the light changed just enough for Star to see her own eyes in the visors reflection. They lined up exactly with Samus'. The shape, the size, she had a hard time telling if she was looking at her own reflection, or straight through to Samus' eyes.

Star. Graces voice seemed very far off. Star? She wondered what Samus saw as she looked back into her eyes, Star. She blinked, Graces hand was on her shoulder. With a huge effort Star pulled her eyes away from the woman she missed so much and looked into Grace's red ones.

You need to see the room. Grace told her, understanding in her eyes. Are you going to be alright?

Star realized with a jolt that she had a single tear running down her face, she wiped it away forcefully, I don't think any of us will be for a long while. she answered walking into the room. Behind her Grace glanced at the Shadow Sage who stared right back. Grace dropped her gaze and followed her friend through the door.

Star was surprised to realize that she hadn't remembered how big the rooms were Thick, light blue carpet blanketed the floor. Two deep cushioned, grey colored couches stood in the center of the room facing each other, an oak coffee table between them. There were two large, plush reclining chairs sitting near the large window, through which, in the mid-morning light (she now knew what time it was thanks to the clock hanging on the wall), the stables and the hedge maze were visible. She walked forward. Paintings of different scenes from various cultures histories adorned the walls. A door stood open on the right wall, through it she could see the youngest members of the group, Gabriel, Zip, and Wing, admiring the king sized mattress. This was definitely a guest room.

Ness began speaking to the group scattered through various places of the room, "This room is pretty comfortable, and some of you could sleep on the couches. There are two more rooms just down the hall from this one, so you could split the boys into two rooms and the girls could have the other one. I know you might not like sharing but…" Star stopped listening to what he was saying and started looking at were her comrades stood. Mercury and Lucky each stood next to one of the reclining chairs. Red and Green stood close together in the upper left hand corner of the room. Junior was admiring a painting on the same wall, about four yards down from the yoshis. Wing, Gabriel, and Zip, of course had the bed, it was only fair as they were the only ones who couldn't remember what sleeping in one felt like. Grace was leaning on the left hand couch with Kass sitting on its top. That left the right hand couch with Ree hovering over it.

Is everyone satisfied with these arrangements? Star interrupted Ness in his tirade about how oddly the rooms were organized in his opinion.

I'm good. Lucky said sprawling in the chair, followed by agreement from everyone else.

Star turned to Mewtwo, "Thank you for the room, you can return to what you were doing before we came."

"We'll show you the other rooms first, the closets in the bed chambers should have extra blankets, if you need them." Impa said in a patient voice.

"That will not be necessary," Grace said "this room will suffice."

Mewtwo raised the skin above his eye which would be the equivalent of raising an eyebrow, Just one room, for all of eleven of you? Isn't that a bit cramped?

"Na," Lucky answered "we'll be fine."

"Are you sure, we have plenty of room." Impa said with concern.

"Pik, ca, cha, cha, Pek." Kass replied.

"Err, what did he say?' Ness asked scratching his head.

"She said, Yes we're sure, please leave us." Junior translated looking away from the painting, and smiling politely. Star noticed that Ness winced when Junior spoke to him. This reaction had pretty much been mutual from all of the Smashers.

"You don't need anything else?" Captain Falcon grumbled in a threatening way.

"No." Mercury growled irritably.

Captain Falcon turned and left immediately. Ness hesitatingly followed a moment later. Impa did not look quite convinced, and Star could see Samus still standing in her amour in the hall trying to catch her eye. She refused to look at her.

Go on you two, Mewtwo said to the two woman, Your husband probably wants to talk to you, he directed at Impa and that suit is unnecessary to walk around the Mansion in, He looked at Samus I'll be downstairs in a moment. I just need a quick word alone with them.

Slowly Impa turned, and then in a brisk walk left the room. Samus held still a second longer, then continued down the hall. The door shut, most likely under the influence of Mewtwo. He looked around at them and hovered down so that he stood upon his feet.

Well I must say I'm thoroughly surprised. he said amusement in his voice, I'm especially surprised at you, he looked at Star, I just never though of her being… he paused and grinned and now a Mew joined the team, a rare feat indeed, but I'd have to say I am most thoroughly shocked at you, Bowser Junior, turning sides, what happened that made you do that?

"I though you would have read my memory and found out." Junior retorted with a grin on his face.

I didn't scan you that deeply. I recognized you with my eyes and all I needed to know was whose side you were on.

"Mewtwo," Star cut in "You know who we are, and you probably know what fate has befallen many lives, including the Smashers. As intelligent as you are you must know that they cannot find out who we really are, or what events transpired in the future, it could make thing worse than they are."

"That's kind of hard to imagine." Zip said running his fingers through the fur on his tail.

"Can we trust you to keep our secret?" Grace asked shrewdly. Everyone was quiet for a moment.

You can trust me to know what I'm doing. Woman's bathroom, which includes showers, sinks, and baths, is down the hall, around the corner, and three doors down. It will have 'Woman's bathroom' written in gold lettering on the door, can't miss it. The Men's bathroom is the same but on the opposite wall, it's the first room in the middle if you're walking up the stairs. The Great Hall is downstairs; you're probably always welcome in the kitchen, the Chef would be delighted to have visitors. The library is also open to you, just be quiet and try to keep them from seeing what you're reading. They'll be looking for any reason to undermine my word and interrogate you. We've been tricked a few to many times for some people's comfort. The lab on the fourth floor is also open, but only if someone is with you at all times, I would be the best choice, knowing who you are and all that. I'd stay out of the recreation rooms downstairs, but everything on the third floor is open, the gym, music room, holographic projector and the rest. The fifth floor and anywhere on the fourth floor besides the lab are totally off limits.

"I thought you trusted us." Green said cocking her head.

I do, but others don't, there have to be some boundaries, otherwise it's looks like you are controlling my mind. he replied calmly, I think that covers it. I'm normally not this helpful but the situation interests me. Mewtwo turned and walked out of the room not bothering to hover. One more thing. he stopped outside the open door, don't try to figure out how the builders of this mansion managed to place all of these rooms the way they are. We've tried every available strategy to figure it out, but I know they had their reasons for not telling us. Maybe they did it to remind us that there will always be mysteries and secrets surrounding each Smasher, but that sometimes secrets are for the best and we just have to learn to live with them. Sort of like what's happening here. he said in deep thought.

Light footsteps approached, and a tall blonde woman walked up to Mewtwo and stopped, long hair cascading down her back. She wore a blue, skin-tight, two piece outfit, had well toned arms and legs, and a beautiful face. Every little detail was imprinted upon Stars memory, but it was one thing to remember something from years ago, and quite another to see that something in the flesh after such a long time and so much pain.

Samus must have returned to her room to remove her suit, and was now on her way back downstairs. Star swallowed a lump in her throat and turned her head away even as Samus looked at her with a inquisitive expression.

I was just on my way to the Great Hall, it looks like you're going the same way, mind if I walk with you?

"Uh, you, walk? Why don't you just teleport like usual?' Samus said looking confused.

Too much to think about. he answered cheerfully, a bit of a rare mood for him, if Star remembered correctly. They need some time alone to speak together and I'm sure the other Smashers have much to discuss as well. The door slid shut, but before it closed Star could have sworn she heard Mewtwo actually chuckling in his throat. Everyone in the room waited as both sets of footsteps faded away. She couldn't think of anything to say, and since she was the leader, no one else tried to start conversation either. Finally Grace made a small noise in her throat and got everyone's attention.

"We need to set some ground rules while we're here, it would help us keep our minds off seeing them alive. First, rather obviously, no telling them how we are related, speak of it to no one. Secondly, when talking to each other beyond the privacy of this room, we will speak only in Haversh, as only we know how to speak and understand it."

Star heaved a breath of air, "Yes, yes… Grace is right. Avoid speaking with them if you can. If they ask you any questions, answer to the best of your ability without giving anything away. If they ask a direct question that you cannot answer without giving us away, then don't say anything, just walk away. Everyone here has their supplies with them, yes?" everyone nodded, "Good, use them when you need to, but try not to let them see."

"Star, it might be a good idea to indulge ourselves a little bit," Lucky said addressing something that Star had been thinking about. "Enjoy the food, which is going to be a lot better than what we've been eating, drink the clean water, relax in the grass, check out the music room and play a little." He shrugged "I know our top priority is to return, but Wing has to do a whole lot of calculating before we can even begin to build a machine and that leaves the rest of us sitting around. Besides we could use a little break time."

She sighed deeply "I suppose, but whatever you do, try to do it quietly and without rousing their suspicions."

"Do you think we have everything we need to make the machine work?" Mercury asked Wing after a pause.

Wing put on a thoughtful expression and leaned against the nearest couch, "I'm sure all the metals that are needed are here somewhere. All the wire I need is definitely lying around someplace, but some of the parts, and all of the liquids that help pull apart the time line, I'm going to have to make from scratch." She frowned and tugged at a strand of brown hair, "Then comes the problem of powering it. If you remember, it needs highly concentrated electricity. Kass can create it, but she doesn't have enough electricity to power it all at once, and you know that has to happen for the liquids to solidify and break the time barrier."

"How long will it take Wing?" Star said.

Wing sighed, "Anywhere from a week to a month."

"All right, meanwhile you need to work on the calculations." Wing nodded.

"It's so hard to see them." Zip said his voice low and hopeless, "Its hard not to be able to hug them and say we miss them, every time I look at them, I feel… like I'm going to cry." He sniffed, Kass jumped down from the couch and rubbed against his leg for comfort.

"This is going to be very hard on all of us, its going to bend our will, test our resolve and bring back many painful memories. However, if we stick together and are cautious, we will prevail. Don't forget that if you need someone to talk to Ree and I are always here." Grace said.

'Strong and comforting words they were, but without the constant threat of danger, would they be able to stand strong against unresolved issues, or would they finally break without something to occupy their minds?' Star wondered.

"Know what?" Mercury said turning away from the window, "We have a great opportunity here. What if we tell them who we are, what happened to them and how bad things are? Then maybe they could stop all the events that led to things being so bad, and they'll never happen. The world would stay green and we could have peaceful, relatively normal lives?" His face was serious

"Because we run the risk of never being born and that would make things much worse. Think about all the lives we have saved, all the good we have done. All that would never happen, and you know what that would mean." Grace answered.

"She's right. Besides what if they manage to avoid certain things but then fail to do so with others? The universe might actually go down hill faster then before. We still have a chance to make things right." Star put in, tying to bring the mood up a bit, but even as she said the words they rang hollow in her ears. No, she had to just concentrate on one thing and that was going home. She needed to get them home and with as little damage as possible.

"We might keep that in mind though." Red consoled Mercury.

She knew that as silence spread through the group, so did old doubts and fears that they had thought had been dealt with some time ago. They needed to do something. She looked at Ree then at Grace.

"Grace, Ree, reconnaissance mission. You two are the best at stealth. I need you to go downstairs and listen in on their conversation. Ree join up with our minds so that we can see and hear what you do. Grace I think it would be helpful if you 'read between the lines', try and see if any of them have already figured it out. Also there might be some of them that have a lot of hostility toward us. See if you can figure out whom."

"I can already give you a long list of who does and who doesn't." Mercury said bitterly. Red laid a hand on his shoulder "Can't be too sure," he said in a low rumble, "always better to check."

"Pikac, ua, Pia," Kass said tilting her head.

"I agree, Ree and I will go. It is a good plan to make sure we know what's going on." Grace said as she and Ree started toward the door.

"Wait!" Wing said. Everyone looked at the youngest member of their group. "I'm scared." She said softly.

Grace knelt down and placed her hand against Wings cheek, "We're all frightened, Wing, and we all feel like crying, but the safest thing to do is to make sure that they don't find out, no matter how much it hurts us to see them again." The words sounded right in Stars ears but deep inside, past, all the emotional barriers she had put up, she felt very weak.

"We are going now," Grace said standing up and patting Wing on the shoulder. She and Ree opened the door and stepped out into the hall. Then, Grace vanished. Ree hovered through the door, the light shining on her coat. Her whole small body glowed white then disappeared, similar to how their weapons had. Star slid back into a more comfortable position on the floor, and the others did as well. Zip, after he had shut the door. Then they felt Ree join their minds together, and they saw what she saw, and heard what she could hear.

Mewtwo sat on the bench at the end of the table in less of a good mood than when he had first come down. He had been at the receiving end of accusations, threats and conspiracy theories, for a good twenty minuets before the other Smashers had finally started arguing with each other about who "these kids" were, how far in the future they had come from, and the 'stupidity' of letting them into the mansion. Mewtwo's arms were folded and his tail curled tightly, as his eyes swept the table, seeing if any of them had caught on to any clues. Impa and Apollo seemed to have thought of it, for they were speaking quietly to each other in the swift Sheik language, and both their eyes were wide. The Smashers were not ignorant people by any means of the word, but only the two Shadow people seemed to have made the connection. 'Perhaps,' Mewtwo pondered tapping a finger against his arm 'The Smashers have chosen, subconsciously, not to connect those dots, after all it is a pretty frightening concept, for some more than others.'

It was eleven-thirty and Chef Gam had taken the liberty of preparing a nice lunch, composed of some of last nights leftovers and a few things that he had 'whipped up while they were gone'. Most of the Smashers had not been able to finish their breakfasts before the alarm sounded, and some hadn't even made it downstairs. Mewtwo supposed that lack of food so early in the morning, and high levels of adrenalin, had caused everyone to be in more of a foul mood than usual, for now that they were relaxing on the bench and had some food in their stomachs, they were discussing the situation in much calmer tones and were no longer throwing out accusations. They were, however, still putting out reasons not to trust the children (and teenagers, as Daisy was kind enough to point out) upstairs.

"And what about those dinosaur things?!" Fox said angrily, slamming his palms on the table top "They look like the Sharp Claws from Dinosaur planet. Those beasts shouldn't even be sleeping in the Mansion."

"Watch who you're calling beasts," Yoshi snapped, something he only did if he was very annoyed "Those beasts are the same species as I am." The hall went deadly quiet. Everyone who had been speaking stopped and looked, open mouthed at Yoshi. Mewtwo found this highly amusing.

"Same species?" spluttered Kirby.

"Beep, deet, beep?" Mr. Game and Watch said.

"I think what he means is, how you can be related to those, Things, and I would have to agree." Nana translated.

"And how come we've never heard of them or seen them?" Mario asked, flabbergasted at this new piece of information.

Yoshi sighed and rubbed the back of his neck, "Yoshis are capable of Next Generation Evolutionary Skip. Basically, what that means is that, within one generation we can adapt drastically to our environment. This only works when we are still developing within the egg, and it depends on the environment outside, such things as the temperature, the location, and even the food supplies, not to mention the state of the Yoshis that are taking care of the nest. Most of the time these will be our parents, but other Yoshis will also lend a hand. We, as embryos, can develop into three different stages of protective evolution." Yoshi stopped to make sure everyone was still following this. They were, so he continued. "I am a Passive; the place I developed in was peaceful, with a food surplus, and most of the time, everyone was in a good mood. I still have ways of defending myself, like my long tongue and my jumping abilities, but it was really necessary when I was developing. The next stage up is Defensive, they are a bit larger. Their mouths are thinner, their tongues longer. They can run at pretty much they same speed as Passives do, but have longer endurance. They also posses a heightened sense of smell and sight, but they have the same hearing as a Passives."

"That does not sound anything like the two that are upstairs." Link said with a gesture at the ceiling.

"I wasn't finished." Yoshi replied tapping his foot on the ground, "The last stage is called Aggressive. This is a huge evolutionary leap, the muzzle elongates, the mouth has sharp fangs. They do lose the ability to grab things with their tongues, but they can taste smells in the air with them, which adds to their already incredible sense of smell, that is twice as good as those canine things. What are they called..? Oh, yes, blood hounds. Their eyes move to the sides of their heads, which gives them a wider range of vision. They can see in the dark very well, but this also means that they can't see certain colors, and that varies with each individual. Their tail, backs and legs, are lengthened considerably. They run faster then race horses and for longer periods of time, and as you have seen, their feet evolve long claws, and the long talon on the inside of the foot. They have an extremely high instinct and reflex rate, but…" he raised a finger in the air, "they have a limited cognitive ability in the area of creativeness. Simplistically speaking they can't really perceive how a painting is pretty or full of passion, happiness, or sorrow, it's just a flat object to them."

"So they can't feel emotion, like fear, sadness, or love?" Zelda asked.

"Yes they can, they just can't see it in art work or literature. That's not to say they aren't intelligent, they are. They also can't really string words together very well, they understand things perfectly, they just don't know how to form sentences well, that's why when they speak to each other they mostly do it with snarls, squeaks, grunts and the like."

No one spoke, everyone was taking in the information. Samus took a deep breath and said "So, to sum it all up, their main focus is survival and they have adapted to make sure that they do, but along the way they got rid of a few things that would not necessarily help them to survive?"

"Yep." Yoshi said

"And you say that is an evolutionary skip? So a Passive Yoshi could lay an egg and, if things got bad enough, it could hatch out as an Aggressive? Or vise-versa?" Jody asked slowly.

"Yes…" Yoshi answered puzzled.

"Dose that mean that they might be from about twenty or so years in the future and something extremely bad happened that we couldn't stop?" Peach said, hitching a ride on this train of thought.

"Could be… but it also could be, that they are from a thousand years in the future and Yoshis just evolved into the aggressive state permanently." Yoshi said with a touch of fear.

The room was filled with grim silence, then Luigi who had not closed his mouth during the whole explanation stuttered out "You and those… those, two, cannot possibly be the same species, it's like comparing Free Willy and Jaws!"

This did a great deal to lighten the mood. Mario burst out laughing, Jody gave a giggle, Captain Falcon actually grinned, and Samus gave a small smile, while the rest of the group looked very perplexed.

"What's a 'Free Willy'?" Zelda asked curios.

"And who's jaws?' Popo said rubbing his mouth.

Both questions sent Mario into a roaring laugh and even managed to get Luigi laughing along with his brother. Conversation started up again, as everyone tried to get someone to explain about a large black whale that was stuck in a big glass tank, and an overly large shark, with a taste for sentient beings, and how this related to the strange children and Bowser Junior upstairs.

Mewtwo looked down at his own empty plate as everyone began eating again. He helped himself to some fruit, meat, and bread, either by teleporting them, or, if they were close enough hovering them onto his plate. Pichu suddenly jumped onto the very end of the bench, almost falling off in the process. She then pushed off and landed on his shoulder. He turned his eye to look down into her light green ones.

"Mewtwo," she said in a very low whisper so that no one else could hear. "Do you know who they are?"

Yes. he spoke in her mind alone.

"Would you tell me? I promise I won't say a word to the others."

He considered that, his eyes roving the table watching the other Smashers eat. He could trust Pichu, she was a youngster, but she could keep a secret. He looked back into her small rounded face and told her. Pichu's eyes went wide and her small mouth fell open in surprise.

"Are you going to tell the others? I mean…" she leaned forward to look around Mewtwo's head and down the table at her friends, "it's pretty deeply connected to most of them."

You don't know the half of it.

"And you're not going to tell me, are you?"

I think its best, for now at least, to see if they can figure it out for themselves. He used his powers to lift his cup into the air, placed it against his lips and tilted it backward allowing the water to flow into his mouth.

I'll let fate take its own course of action, for awhile, for now, he paused and lowered his glass They'll have to decide things for themselves.

Pichu wanted to ask who he meant by that but she knew that he wouldn't answer, so she returned to her seat. She looked up at Jody and Falcon then at Samus, how fate could change things so drastically. She was left pondering how they would all react, if they found out, and what the future would hold for them now…


End file.
